Carmine Alfieri

Carmine Alfieri (born February 18, 1943) is an Italian Camorra boss, who rose from Piazzolla di Nola to become one of the most powerful members of Neapolitan Camorra in the 1980s. As boss of the Alfieri clan, he was the undisputed head of the Camorra from 1984 until his arrest in 1992.it icon [http://www.robertosaviano.it/content.php?__params=/9116/&4 Casalesi operazione Gomorra] , L’espresso, August 10, 2007] Alfieri's nickname is " 'o 'ntufato", the angry one, thanks to the dissatisfied, angry sneer he wears constantly. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21261 Italy: The Crooks in Control] , by Alexander Stille, The New York Review of Books, April 17, 2008]

Biography

Early career

Alfieri was born in Saviano, near Naples. The Camorra entered in his life when he was only seven. In 1953, he took an oath with his brother Salvatore, to avenge the killing of their father Antonio Alfieri. Three years later, in 1956, Salvatore Alfieri killed the murderer of his father. [it icon [http://www.napolionline.org/wiki/doku.php?id=camorra:i_clan:alfieri Alfieri clan] ] In the 1960s Carmine was first arrested. In 1974, he was initiated in the Camorra as "uomo d'onore" (man of honour). In 1978 he was charged for homicide and in 1981 for mafia association. [Barrese, "Camorra politica pentiti", p. ??.]

In the 1980s he was among the founders of the Nuova Famiglia, which was opposed to the then dominant Nuova Camorra Organizzata of Raffaele Cutolo. The rivalry caused a ferocious war with a huge number of victims, including Carmine’s brother Salvatore. The Alfieri clan of the 1980s and 1990s exhibited a hubris and a penchant for wanton violence that compared favorably with Cosa Nostra’s spectacular assassinations. According to police estimates, Alfieri’s killers alone counted as many as 500 murders during the decade 1983-93. For instance, Domenico Cuomo, Alfieri's main hitman confessed to have committed over 90 murders within the same period. [ [http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_298.html The Business Of The Camorra] , by Mike La Sorte, AmericanMafia.com, April 2005] Behan, "See Naples and Die", [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aepiCW44eEkC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=Carmine+Alfieri+500+murders&source=web&ots=2zGIM8a7dM&sig=_m13Yi97o2kY0qnrgIv1OWvi1g8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result,M1 Google Print, p. 13] .]

Rise to power

Cutolo overplayed his hand in the Cirillo kidnap affair. His former political protectors turned and provided their support to Carmine Alfieri, his main rival in the bloody 1981-83 Camorra war between Cutolo’s Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) and the Nuova Famiglia. In November 1982, the NCO's financier, Alfonso Ferrara Rosanova, was murdered. When Cutolo’s deputy and main ‘military’ chief, Vincenzo Casillo was killed via a car bomb in January 1983 by the allies of Alfieri, it was clear Cutolo not only had lost his political protection but the war as well. Many other Camorra gangs understood the shift in the balance of power caused by the death of Casillo. They abandoned the NCO and allied themselves with Alfieri.Behan, "See Naples and Die", pp. 151-54]

After the defeat of Cutolo, war broke out among the anti-NCO coalition, in particular between the Nuvoletta clan from Marano and Antonio Bardellino at the end of 1983. Alfieri sided with Bardellino’s Casalesi clan. The war culminated in the Torre Annunziata massacre of August 1984, which left eight people killed and 24 wounded among the Gionta clan allied with Nuvoletta. After the massacre and the murder of Ciro Nuvoletta two months earlier, the balance of power shifted in favour of Alfieri.Behan, "See Naples and Die", pp. 127-28]

In the first instance Alfieri and others were convicted for having organised the massacre and given life sentences. However, on appeal they were acquited thanks to the intervention of politicians and the help of judge Armando Cono Lancuba. Behan, "See Naples and Die", p. 237]

Alfieri’s Camorra is described a the "political Camorra" because of its ability to obtain public sector contracts through political contacts. Cutolo's "mass Camorra" of unemployed youth specializes in protection rackets, and Lorenzo Nuvoletta's "business Camorra" reinvested drug money into construction following the 1980 earthquake. The political Camorra was also innovatory because it tried to establish a federation between clans to overcome mutual suspicion and bloody feuds.Behan, "See Naples and Die", [http://books.google.co.in/books?id=aepiCW44eEkC&pg=PA255&dq=political+camorra&sig=ACfU3U2zZQb7e5W084609c72LCWx3oHPVA Google Print, p. 255] ]

Arrest and turncoat

Alfieri, one of the most wanted men in Italy, was arrested by Italian police on September 11, 1992. At the time of his arrest, Alfieri’s personal assets were estimated at US$1.2 billion, making him the richest criminal in Italy.Behan, "See Naples and Die", p. 12]

In March 1994, like his former lieutenant Pasquale Galasso who preceded him, Alfieri became a pentito.it icon [http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1994/marzo/01/pente_Carmine_Alfieri_superboss_della_co_8_9403011156.shtml Si pente Carmine Alfieri superboss della camorra] , Corriere della Sera, March 1, 1994] Both Alfieri and Galasso clarified numerous homicides and implicated the former Italian Minister of the Interior Antonio Gava and dozens of other politicians. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405E0DD163AF932A1575AC0A962958260 Italian Ex-Interior Minister Is Arrested in Raids on Mobsters] , "The New York Times", September 21, 1994] They claim not only to have met Gava, but insist that Gava used his influence to win the release of several convicted camorristi.Stille, "Excellent Cadavers", p. 403] His decision to become a pentito spurred the Camorra to kill several members of Alfieri's blood family, including his son Antonio, a brother Francesco, a nephew and Vincenzo Giugliano, son-in-law. [Grado, "Camorra", p. ??.]

References

*cite book|first=Orazio (ed.)|last=Barrese|title=Camorra politica pentiti|publisher=Rubbettino|location=Soveria Mannelli|year=1994
*cite book|first=Tom (ed.)|last=Behan|title= [http://books.google.com/books?id=aepiCW44eEkC&dq See Naples and Die: The Camorra and Organized Crime] |publisher=Taurus Publishers|location=London/New York|year=2002
*cite book|first=Alfredo|last=Grado|title=Camorra|publisher=Edizioni universitarie romane|location=Rome|year=2005
*Stille, Alexander (1995). "Excellent Cadavers. The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic", New York: Vintage ISBN 0-09-959491-9