Often in our country, Australia, the words Mafia and ‘Ndrangheta pop up in the media, not so much to fight organised crime but to denigrate and stereotype the Italian Australian community.
A certain Mr Miranda, Senior Correspondent for News Australia – who judging by his last name could even be a descendant of Sicilian migrants makes the fight against organised crime his forte in a recently published news piece.
“The Italian Mafia remains “entrenched” in Australia” – writes Miranda – referring to a 2002 report produced by the Italian police that dubbed Australia as the Mafia’s “sixth state” in order to persuade the Australian Federal Police not to shut its Rome-based office. The report also suggested that the Mafia considered Australia “an autonomous Italian state,” with its own godfather taking orders from Calabria.
Certainly, Mr Miranda seems to know a lot more about this topic than I do, but his assumptions are circulated to the public without a mention of names, places, events or at least the most basic details that wouldgive readers a level of accuracy expected from the reporters of our times.
Mr Miranda appears to suggest with confidence, however, that these criminals are Italian. If that’s the case, he may be better suited to be an informant instead of a journalist. His rather hazy story leaves much room for the sort of unacceptable stereotypical remarks against the entire community. “Italian? Oh, Mafia!”
Branded as ‘Mafiosi’, some Italian Australians may have tried to imitate the legendary trilogy of “The Godfather” but at least here, downunder, they seem to just be a group of wannabes – or as Italians call them ‘quaquaraqua’ – compared to the original film character by Mario Puzo.
The columnist adds that “Interpol noted the Mafia had used the Covid-19 period to flourish, particularly laundering money. The review flagged six designated ‘Ndrangheta “locales” in Australia with family-linked people having “penetrated” all three tiers of government.”
So, according to Mr Miranda and the Interpol, Australia is in the hands of the Mafia and the ‘Ndrangheta: “They have engaged local communities through social connections and sporting groups of their kids and used clan contacts in key industries of transport and shipping ports and law enforcement to further their crimes.”
According to Italian police, shortly before Covid-19 hit, the ‘Ndrangheta “dispatchedtwo cells of four clans to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Western Australia to sanction the structure and drug traffick-
ing alliances […] with Lebaneseand Chinese.”
The Mafia criminal syndicate exposed by Mr Miranda is concerning, so if we are to take his reporting seriously, why don’t we know what their names are, how they operate, where they are located, what local communities they have infiltrated, what sport groups they belong to, what transport or shipping companies they control and finally the names of local police officers they have bribed?
If Mr Miranda’s statements are to be trusted, our community is in a pretty bad shape. Could you imagine Australia becoming an Italian colony under the joint direction of Mafia and ‘Ndrangheta? Not even Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini went this far, contenting himself only with the colonies of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia.
Opposing Mafia, ‘Ndrangheta and other organised crime is necessary for the peace and health of our society, however it cannot come at the expense of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Questo articolo è apparso nell’edizione del 1 luglio 2021 di Allora!
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