Calabrian mafia’s ecstasy bust mistake

This is how the Ndrangheta, the world’s most powerful mafia clan, run their drug empire as the Calabrian mafias’ error in the world’s biggest ecstasy bust is revealed.

A sophisticated mafia smuggling system sends cocaine to Australia without the ship’s crew knowing they are carrying the drugs so “no-one gets hurt”.

Australia’s streets are being flooded with illegal drugs through a contactless system developed in Italy, according to mafia expert Dr Anna Sergi.

The University of Essex professor reveals in the Mafia’s Web podcast how maritime workers are duped into becoming drug mules.

“The Ndrangheta essentially created and exploited this system,” Dr Sergi said.

“They are among the first to use method, which is the rip on, rip off system, which is about hiding a bag of cocaine in a container with no one knowing that there is a bag of cocaine in the container apart from the people who actually put it there and the people who take it out of the air at the end point.

Mafia expert and University of Essex professor Anna Sergi.

“So the transport people, everyone involved in the transport, don’t know that they’re transporting cocaine.”

The Ndrangheta, now the world’s most powerful mafia clan with deep links in Australia, turns over more than $150 billion each year.

The group became increasingly powerful when it linked up with Colombian crime gangs who supply the world’s cocaine.

The Ndrangheta cornered the distribution market for cocaine, with millions of tonnes flowing through the port of Gioia Tauro, in Calabria, southern Italy.

The rivers of gold from cocaine have allowed the Ndrangheta mafia clan to buy up legitimate businesses to expand their empires.

Listen to the latest Mafia’s Web episode below:

A view of the Gioia Tauro Port area, in Calabria, southern Italy Picture: Alfonso Di Vincenzo

Dr Sergi said the mafia’s smuggling system increased profits.

“So in theory, if you are a captain of a ship, and cocaine is found on your ship, you’re responsible,” she said.

“So you’re responsible for and you are arrested as a captain of the ship, because you’re transporting cocaine, but you have zero clue that you’re transporting cocaine.”

“You managed to save so much money with this because you don’t have to pay everyone in the middle. And more importantly, you cut the risk out.

“So this is how the shipping worldwide became a thing. This is why it was easy to ship to Australia as well.”

However, there have been some major mistakes for the Calabrian mafia.

More than 15 million ecstasy tablets were seized on Melbourne’s docks in 2007 in the case that became known as the Tomato Tins bust.

Australian Customs display some of the seized 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy (MDMA) tablets. Picture: Australian Customs Service

Two tins disguised as canned tomato, holding thousands of ecstasy tablets. Picture: Australian Customs Service

The group had planned to flood the market with the pills, which would have had a market value of more than $120 million.

Crime author Keith Moor said the Tomato Tins shipment was a sophisticated importation.

But it was derailed when the alleged importers did not receive a call to pick up the container, leaving it to sit on the docks for 13 months.

“They were professional tins. So obviously that ecstasy was put in those tins in a real cannery, a massive factory used toproducing legitimate tins of tomatoes,” he said.

The tins also weighed the correct amount, with some having rocks included to make the perfect weight, he added.

But despite the massive drug bust, there was not a dip of supply on the streets.

“Any teenager could still go into any nightclub in Chapel street Prahran and elsewhere and get an ecstasy pill for roughlythe same price as beforehand,” Mr Moor said.

“So it just goes to show that for every container load that the police get, maybe nine or 10, others get through.

“Customs just can’t afford to scan every container that comes in.”