AI-generated transcript, reviewed and corrected by Jacques Bertrand. Timestamps refer to the original audio.

[00:03] Italians resisting the mafia. Their courage, our inspiration. This is the Omerta Overcomers Podcast with Jacques Bertrand.

[00:23] Beatrice Portinari, today is going to be different. As you know, this podcast is about people resisting the mafia, especially business owners, community leaders, journalists, and women and men in the public sector. Today we’re going inside, inside the ‘ndrangheta. Experts believe it’s one of the most powerful, richest mafias in the world, certainly in Italy. I’m saying this even though I don’t like to use those qualifiers for two reasons. One, I don’t want to exaggerate things, especially when they are very hard to measure. I don’t want to please the ‘ndrangheta and contribute to their narrative, even if they’re probably not listening here. So today’s story is fictional as always, but it’s inspired by a real person. In this case, a man born into the ‘ndrangheta. He became capo or boss and then he did something rare and very risky. He left. I’ll tell you more about him later in this episode and you can find more information on my website. omertaovercomers.ca Now here’s that story that I prepared.

[01:39] born into the darkness, breaking the cycle for the next generation. The story of Massimo.

[01:47] My main character is Massimo. Massimo is 42 from, let’s say, Porto Fiore. Imagine a small town on the Eonian coast. Massimo never chose the mafia life. He was born into it, literally. In the ‘ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, everything starts and ends with family and blood ties. As the first son of a boss, everyone knew Massimo would be the leader one day. At 10 he fired a real gun. 10 years old. A child soldier for the ‘ndrangheta. Training was rough and violent. He learned to think and act like a mafioso. At 14, he was sent to beat up the neighborhood bully, just to send a message. At 19 they ordered him to kill a tobacco shop owner in the old port. It was his big test. Massimo shot him three times in the head. After that, for months, he was crying at night. Above all, he was brainwashed into believing that he was a member of a traditional, honorable society. And that loyalty to the ‘ndrangheta came before everything else. Including family. His uncle Salvatore was the Capo Bastoni, the boss in Porto Fiore. When the police arrested Salvatore, he made Massimo acting boss, surprising everyone, because Massimo was only 26. The job should have normally gone to his own dad. But his father was too reckless and foolhardy. The uncle trusted Massimo more. Then the uncle was killed in prison by another faction of the ‘ndrangheta. And now the family demanded revenge and they expected Massimo to uphold the reputation of the clan. When two clans of the ‘ndrangheta go after each other, it’s called a faida. These wars can drag on for years and make a lot of victims. At a tense meeting, Massimo’s father says: “We need to fight back now!” Massimo quickly replies, “I decide when we act! We’ll strike at the right time.” His men won’t say it out loud, but they think Massimo is a little too soft. But there’s a reason for it. Massimo hates this life. He’s married with two kids. His wife, Carolina, comes from an honest family and she can’t stand being married to a mafioso. It’s not her fault. At the beginning, Carolina believed Massimo simply ran a car repair shop. Until he told everything. Now Carolina wants to get their children away from all this. She keeps giving Massimo ultimatums, but he feels completely stuck. Then one Sunday at a restaurant, a place they own at the beach. A song comes on and Massimo breaks down. “It’s worse than Hotel California,” he says. “You can’t check out and you can’t leave.” Carolina starts to cry. The next day, Massimo comes home and finds Carolina and the kids gone. The Capo’s wife has run off with their two children. Now everyone thinks Massimo is weak. His father, Eduardo, is angry. “You could never handle anything! The kids belong here with you! She’ll pay for humiliating us!” In that moment, Massimo is caught between two worlds, and both are crumbling.

[05:33] Massimo knows all the clan is watching. His dad is very concerned. In the ‘ndrangheta, when someone breaks the rules, their family may pay the price. Massimo invites his father to talk in a quiet location in the countryside. He tells him: “I’m leaving.” Eduardo yells, “No way! You’ll get all of us killed!” Massimo turns to leave. Eduardo shouts. He’s pointing a gun at him. Massimo runs behind the tree, they exchange fire, and his father is hit in the leg. From his car, Massimo then calls a doctor, knowing he will never see his dad again.

[06:25] Massimo starts to collaborate with the authorities. For investigators, this is a very big deal. The ‘ndrangheta is very tough to fight because it’s built around those family groups called “‘ndrina.” Very few members of this mafia have ever collaborated with law enforcement. Massimo tells everything he knows about the ‘ndrangheta. Over the years, he testifies in trials that send to prison more than a hundred criminals. In return, he was granted a reduced prison time for his crimes. The whole family is covered by the Italian Witness Protection Program. But they’re not alone. Carolina’s parents and two sisters had to move as well. It was just too risky for them to stay in Calabria. They do get government support like rent and some police protection, but dealing with the authorities and the bureaucracy is a nightmare. At first they’re sent to Nettuno, a town south of Rome. Both families move into small apartments on a quiet street, and they stay inside as much as possible. Going to the market in the morning, Carolina often greets an old lady who’s sitting outside. One day the woman tells her, “You did the right thing.” “What’s that?” “You left the mafia, I know, because your apartment is reserved for pentiti.” Carolina panics. She goes back home and tells Massimo, “We need to move now!” Over the next 12 years, they’re always on the move, sometimes changing towns two, three times a year, with no explanations from the people making those decisions. And the strange thing is that they never get complete new identities. Just ID cards with different names but no matching paperwork. Whenever they deal with schools or government offices, they have to use their real names. So key people like doctors, bank managers, the local priest, they know who they are. For example, Carolina can’t work as a dental hygienist because her fake name doesn’t match her diplomas. For someone like her who never did anything wrong, it feels like punishment. The kids Stefano and Manuela have a hard time too. New schools all the time having to invent stories for their new friends. And safety? They’re always looking over their shoulders, worried the ‘ndrangheta will catch up with them. But Massimo teaches his kids how to spot danger. One day after school, Manuela thinks a man is following her. She walks into a bar and calls her dad. Massimo comes in a hurry. He watches the guy from a distance and calls the carabinieri. It turns out the man has no police record, but he does come from their hometown in Calabria, so they’re moved again, this time to a freezing country house with no internet.

[09:48] Massimo was born into a Mafia family. But that life wasn’t for him. He left the ‘ndrangheta and worked with the justice system, and he spent time in jail. It’s been years and he and his family are still hoping to truly start a new life. It turns out to be a never-ending nightmare, especially for those family members who never broke the law. Beatrice, here’s a quick note about justice collaborators, often called “pentiti,” a pejorative tag. Justice collaborators can have a huge impact. In the mid-80s, the famous investigating magistrate Giovanni Falcone got Tommaso Buscetta to talk, and Italy discovered that Cosa Nostra was a real thing, a real organization. 360 people were convicted for Mafia crimes at the end of the famous Maxi trial of Palermo. Collaborators give investigators a major edge. Years of insider information they’d never get otherwise. If you could measure the value, it’d be worth millions. In return, of course, they often get a reduced sentence for their crimes. But Italy’s Witness Protection Program gets criticized for not supporting collaborators enough. Often the system seems to use collaborators without giving them a real chance to start a new life.

[11:42] At the top, I said this story is inspired by a real-life justice collaborator. His name is Luigi Bonaventura. Luigi used to be a boss of the ‘ndrangheta in Crotone in Calabria. He hated growing up as a mafia soldier and didn’t want that kind of life for his two kids. So he walked away from it all. I first spoke with him years ago over Skype. He introduced me to his wife and son, who I think was turning 18 that night. Luigi’s story is so impressive that a book came out in 2022 with a forward by Pope Francis. That almost never happens. Long before Francis, I worked at the Vatican in charge of global issues for a humanitarian organization. So I wondered, why would the Pope get involved in this book? It’s simple. Francis believed people can change for the better. That’s what Luigi Bonaventura did. Luigi and his wife Paola even started an organization to talk about what collaborators go through and why they matter in the fight against the Mafia. He is on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. Slowly they are helping to change the culture. These Omerta Overcomers are amazing. If you wish to know more about Luigi, please visit my website. Thank you so much for listening.

[13:20] We’re grateful for your presence today. For more information, check out our website at… omertaovercomers.ca Feel free to connect with Jacques at MyReaction@protonmail.com.

[13:37] And please, spread the word by sharing this episode with two or three people. We appreciate you. A presto.