Sacra Corona Unita

Informer Cosimo Capodieci said the SCU used "the Corona because it resembles a crown, meaning the rosary typically used in Church in order to carry out the functions of Jesus Christ and the cross... Unita because it was necessary to be connected to one another, similar to the rings of a chain."[3] Sacra (Sacred) because at the time of the affiliation the new member is "baptized".[4]

The Sacra Corona Unita was founded in 1981 as the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese by Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, who wanted to expand his operations into the Italian region of Apulia. However, with Cutolo's downfall a few years later the organization began operating separately under the leadership of Giuseppe Rogoli. According to one account of Rogoli's rise to leadership, it is said that the Apulian crime boss was inspired by (and allegedly sanctioned by) various Calabrian 'Ndrangheta leaders imprisoned in the Trani jail, on the coast north of Bari, the capital of the region, to form a new criminal organization based in Apulia with himself at its head. Legend has it that on Christmas Day, 1983, Rogoli, with several of his imprisoned followers and several Calabrian mafia leaders (one Calabrian was rumoured to be the capobastone of the powerful Bellocco clan) came together in Rogoli's cell where he was officially initiated and sanctioned as the supreme head of the newly formed SCU. However, secret documents pertaining to the history of the SCU were eventually seized by the Italian law enforcement agencies and show that the reported ceremony actually took place in May 1983, not on Christmas day. Under Rogoli's leadership the SCU mixed Apulian interests and opportunities with 'Ndrangheta and Camorra traditions.

Originally preying on the region's substantial wine and olive oil industries, the group moved into cigarette smuggling, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, extortion, and political corruption.[5]

According to a survey conducted by the Eurispes the main sources of income of the organization are:

• Drug trafficking — €878 million per year
• Prostitution — €775 million per year
• Arms trafficking — €516 million per year
• Extortion and usury — €351 million per year[6]

The SCU is made up of three distinct groupings or levels. Members can 'graduate' from one level to the next by going through riti battesimali (baptismal rites). The religious symbolism is probably left over from the SCU's association with the Camorra.

• Società Minore – The lowest level, made up of lower-level criminals who do street-level activities. Members start out as picciotti and go through a 40-day trial to ensure they are suitable for criminal work and are not associated with the police. They are then inducted into the next phase of the level, the manovalanza, or worker. The candidate must also swear an oath of devotion to SCU.
• Società Maggiore – The second level, made up of two positions.
• Lo Sgarro – The position is given only to members who have killed at least three people for SCU, and from now on members cannot leave, on pain of death. Members can now form their own crew of picciotti, known as a filiale. Upon indoctrination into the La Santa position the member is given a firearm (to symbolically use on oneself upon failing SCU), a cyanide pill, cotton (representing Mont Blanc, which is considered sacred), a lemon (treating the wounds of one's comrades), a needle to puncture the index finger of the right hand, handkerchiefs (representing purity of spirit) and a spartenza (a gift of some sort, usually cigarettes).[7]
• Società Segreta– The top level, the core of the organization where key decisions are made.

The Sacra Corona Unita consists of about 50 clans with approximately 2,000 members and specializes in smuggling cigarettes, drugs, arms, and people. The Sacra Corona Unita collects payoffs from other criminal groups for landing rights on the southeast coast of Italy.

The SCU uses a hierarchical structure when running its organization, and the higher you climb the more responsibility and money you gain. Men are the predominant rulers of the group. In recent years, the SCU has been finding ways to exploit people online by scamming and hacking individuals for money. This money is then laundered into countries across Europe, such as the U.K., Spain, and Germany.[2]

The Sacra Corona Unita has the Apulian region as their main territory, however, they are known to have a presence in other parts of Italy, especially in Modena, Mantua, and Reggio Emilia. Outside Italy, the organization has a presence in Albania, Spain, Germany, United States and the United Kingdom.[8]

• The organization has long been present in Albania, partly because of the proximity of Apulia and Albania and the diffusion of the Italian language. Albania is a point of arrival for huge quantities of smuggled cigarettes and drugs from Afghanistan.[8]
• Spain is considered a logistical base for the trafficking operations of the organization. SCU fugitives have been stopped in seaside resorts south of Barcelona.[8]
• While the organization does not have consolidated structures in Germany, it is known that the Rogoli-Buccarella-Donatiello clan, the Padovano clan, the Tornese clan and the Mesagnesi clan have a presence in the country. The Coca-family investigation documented large cocaine trafficking from Germany to the province of Brindisi.[8]
• The US FBI say: "Very few members of the Sacra Corona Unita have been identified in the United States, although some individuals in Illinois, Florida and New York would have ties with the organization."[8]
• In the United Kingdom the Sacra Corona Unita is believed to invest dirty money in hotels and in the tourism sector.[9]

With the decreasing importance of the Adriatic corridor as a smuggling channel as the situation in the Balkans normalises, and a series of successful police and judicial operations against it in recent years, the Sacra Corona Unita has been reduced to a fraction of its former power, which peaked around the mid-1990s.

[10]

The internal difficulties of the SCU aided the birth of antagonistic criminal groups such as:

• Remo Lecce Libera: formed by some leading criminal figures from Lecce, who claim to be independent from any criminal group other than the 'Ndrangheta. The term Remo indicates Remo Morello, a criminal from the Salento area, killed by criminals from the Campania region because he opposed any external interference;
• Nuova Famiglia Salentina: formed in 1986 by De Matteis Pantaleo, from Lecce and stemming from the Famiglia Salentina Libera born in the early 1980s as an autonomous criminal movement in the Salento area with no links with extra-regional Mafia expressions, the organization fought a feud against SCU's clans in Lecce;[15]
• Rosa dei Venti: formed in 1990 by De Tommasi in the Lecce prison, following an internal division in the SCU.[16]

• Sicilian Mafia
• Camorra
• Società foggiana
• Stidda
• Banda della Magliana
• Albanian Mafia

• Maria Grazia Pasculli (2011). "Organized crime in Italy: the Puglia mafia". Prim@ Facie. 10 (18): 40. ISSN 1678-2593. OCLC 1031892311.