Review: Gommorah – Italy’s Other Mafia – by Roberto Saviano

Roberto Saviano is the Italian Salman Rushdie. After writing his exposé on the Neapolitan mafia that is the subject of this book, Gomorrah, Saviano had serious death threats from organised crime and had to go into hiding and lives under security protection to this day. He is only a young man and is a patriotic native of Naples, in southern Italy. One often hears of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra or Ndrangheta as the two main Italian mafias. Less known and possibly more powerful and brutal is the Gomorrah or Camorra. Saviano gives us a geographical tour of the Neapolitan region, exploring many of the often forgotten villages where rival clans are in control or that form key locations for the wide-ranging both legal and illegal business interests of the Camorra. About one third of their money comes from the global fashion industry, one third from cocaine-trafficking and another third from waste disposal. This subject area of Italy has over the past 30 years the highest homicide rate in Europe. Internecine conflict between clans has erupted into full-scale military like atrocities, scarring the whole community. Naples is a massive port city and is the de facto entrance into Europe for Chinese freight. Materials for the Italian fashion industry are sourced in China. The global attraction of ‘Made in Italy’ garments has led to the Camorra running a huge cottage like industry throughout the small towns and villages of the Napoli periphery where high fashion is created. The textile industry replicates almost exactly the products of big Italian fashion houses such as Gucci, Armani and Versace. There is a global distribution network for the sale of these marked-down fakes and in high stores in Chicago malls to London’s Carnaby Street, these Naples Camorra fashion products end up often on the same shelves as the authentic originals. It’s a big money-roller and relatively risk-free. The Cammora act as agents for the Latin American Colombian and Mexican cartels for the European franchise for cocaine distribution. In local open air drug markets cocaine retails at half the price it does elsewhere in Europe. Gangs with lookouts openly sell and drug tourists come from all over to score. The Camorra test the cutting quality of new heroin batches with junkie guinea pigs who get a free dose and report the quality of the product after they inject. The book zigzags across all elements of the Cammorese networks. The clan wars are very violent and brutal and tit for tat murders have wiped out entire families. When Camorra fall foul of the authorities and end up in jail, their spouses or family are given a social security style cash payment on the condition of omerta and loyalty. I found one of the most interesting aspects of the total dominance of the are’s enterprise in the waste disposal business. Landfills are sought out in every possible nook and cranny in the local countryside and some very dodgy environmentally-damaging, highly toxic rubbish heads down towards the boot of Italy for reprocessing or incineration. This former centre for agriculture is seeing more and more disruption to the natural world and farmers are steadily disappearing. High cancer rates are a byproduct of the pollution.
The book is full of Italian names of local towns and characters. The influence and reach of the Camorra is impressively grand and they are a permanent state like organisation. The book has been made into a film and there is also a spin off tv series. I can understand why Saviano has been threatened but ultimately by exposing the Cammora he may have inadvertently given their mafia prestige a lot more ultimate power.