Original subtitles

REPORTER: Hundreds of alleged members

of Italy's most powerful Mafia group, The 'Ndrangheta,

are being prosecuted.

REPORTER 2: There is a reason why this is called a maxi-trial.

ROSS KEMP: In 2021, sentencing began

In one of the biggest Mafia trials in history.

REPORTER 3: In all, 207 gang members were sentenced

to a total of 2,200 years behind bars.

The trial, which has lasted for three years,

heard evidence of murder, corruption, extortion,

and money laundering.

- (speaking Italian)

KEMP: The accused were from

the most notorious branch of the Mafia,

the 'Ndrangheta.

- 'Ndrangheta is very, very strong.

'Ndrangheta international, very, very strong.

- They know how to make money, and they have money.

Silence is their power.

REPORTER: Even with mass convictions,

many question how much the 'Ndrangheta's influence

will diminish. The Mafia can do business from behind bars.

KEMP: Before the trial, the main prosecutor was quoted

as saying that: "The 'Ndrangheta's interests in the UK

have figured prominently, as clans have used the country

as an investment and money-laundering base."

If that proved to be the case,

it could change what we know about the Mafia and Britain.

(sombre music)

The Mafia, historically, is a hierarchical,

structured organised crime group from southern Italy.

But what exactly is its relationship with Britain?

I've travelled around the world to try and find out.

- I took him apart in there, wound up on that kerb right there.

KEMP: From the glitz and glamour of London's casinos in the 1960s,

which attracted the American Mob...

- Carlo Gambino.

- You met John Gotti? - Yes.

- Big members of The Five Families. - Big.

KEMP: .. to the Colombian drug-trafficking operation

in the '80s and '90s,

which fuelled a cocaine epidemic across Europe and the UK.

- 300, 400, 500 kilos in one airplane.

KEMP: My journey took me to Italy,

to discover more about a powerful wing of the Mafia,

the 'Ndrangheta...

..which in recent years has risen to become

one of the most influential Mafia groups.

Just how rich and powerful are they?

- The illegal business, we can only guess.

It's about 50 billion euros. It could be twice as much.

KEMP: And a former member has revealed

what he believes is their connection to Britain.

To truly understand the extent of the 'Ndrangheta's operation,

I'm heading to their heartland in southern Italy.

I'm just about to enter Calabria,

one of the poorest regions in Europe.

Historically, its mountains were home to bandits and kidnappers,

the ancestral home

of one of the world's most powerful organised crime groups.

Since the 19th century,

the small town of Plati has been an 'Ndrangheta stronghold.

They have found their strength

in their ability to rely on traditional family loyalties,

and a code of silence.

While not everyone who lives there is a member,

Plati is still home to many of the bosses.

Wow! It's not a bad view to have from your office.

- Sí.

KEMP: Maresciallo Di Gioia is head of the police station

in Plati.

This must be one of the most sensitive police stations

in the whole of Italy. - Sí.

- So they'll know that we're here? - Sure.

- Really?

They know everything.

It's unnerving, though not surprising,

to know that the 'Ndrangheta are watching us.

Traditionally, they have specialised in numerous criminal enterprises,

including kidnapping, drug-trafficking

and money laundering.

So this house, right?

The marshal is taking me to the former safehouse

of one of the 'Ndrangheta's top bosses.

Can we go in?

(dog barks)

A few years ago, the police raided the property.

So there is an electronic switch in this house

that opens up a trapdoor?

Can you show me the entrance?

Just take my coat for me, and my hat. Thank you.

There we go.

Oh, it is tight, isn't it? (exhales)

Here we go. (exhales)

Oh, wow.

Yeah, there is a bunker down here.

So how many houses do you think in this village have bunkers?

There's a large room, and off that large room

there are separate tunnels.

But it's a tight squeeze.

(exhales)

In a hurry, it wouldn't really matter

whether you bashed yourself,

cos you wouldn't want to get caught by you lot.

Some of the 'Ndrangheta's bunkers have boasted luxury bedrooms,

running water, jacuzzis, and security cameras.

Grazie.

And since members of the 'Ndrangheta are nearly always connected

by blood, very few have ever talked or become pentiti,

literally 'a repentant.'

Pentiti turn against their organised crime group

to collaborate with the authorities.

On one occasion, a Mafia boss was in hiding for 14 years

before being discovered.

REPORTER: This video shows the arrest of an alleged Mafia boss

who specialised in extortion.

(siren wails)

- How many tunnels do you think there are in this town?

So effectively, this town is like a piece of Swiss cheese:

it's got tunnels all the way through it.

So you can cross town, without being seen.

- Sí, sí.

KEMP: From small rural towns in Calabria riddled with tunnels,

the 'Ndrangheta became a major international force.

Today they're estimated to operate

a large part of Europe's cocaine trade,

and they're thought to be worth around $72 billion.

But are they operating in Britain?

In 2021, one of Italy's largest court trials began

here in Calabria.

(Italian)

REPORTER: The trial, which has lasted for three years,

heard evidence of murder, corruption, extortion,

and money laundering.

KEMP: Before the trial,

an Italian prosecutor accused the 'Ndrangheta

of funnelling money through companies in Britain.

- I remember a merchant banker in the City of London

telling me that he loved to handle Mafia money.

KEMP: It was an extraordinary accusation.

I've managed to contact a Mafia prosecutor

working in this region to find out more.

Testament to how dangerous it is to be a prosecutor here in Calabria

is the fact that we're not allowed to film going into their building

behind me. It also only has one way in,

and that's over a moat that's 20 metres deep.

ROSS KEMP: I'm investigating Britain's links to the Mafia.

I'm now in Calabria in the south of Italy,

the ancestral home of the 'Ndrangheta,

a powerful and dominant branch of the Mafia.

Prosecutor.

Giuseppe Lombardo is the state prosecutor here,

and he and his team have been investigating the 'Ndrangheta

for the last 26 years.

When your life is at risk every day,

why do you come to work?

Why do you do what you do?

How far do you think their power stretches?

That's more money than major corporations can make.

Where does that cash go?

How do you legitimise that amount of money?

London? London?

London? - London.

- Why particularly London?

What's attractive about the City of London?

If that's true, just how aware were the British authorities

of this alleged criminal connection, and what are they doing about it?

I've discovered that over 30 years ago,

at the behest of the Italian government,

Scotland Yard sent a detective to Rome

to investigate the UK's relationship with the Mafia.

So I'm heading to meet him.

Gus. - Oh, hi.

- Good to meet you. - Really pleased meet you too.

KEMP: Gus Jones was a detective

working in the Organised Crime division in London

when he received a new posting.

Gus, when did you come to Italy?

- First came here late 1990.

- Specifically looking at the Mafia, yeah?

- Yeah. Our knowledge of Italian organised crime

and Italian enforcement agencies was pretty minimal in the UK.

- Right. - I think I met Judge Falcone,

it'd be the spring of early 1990.

KEMP: In the 1980s and early '90s,

the leading anti-Mafia prosecutor was Giovanni Falcone.

REPORTER: Falcone and Borsellino did more to damage the Mafia

than anyone since the War.

KEMP: Now I'm hearing

that he and fellow prosecutor Paolo Borsellino

were on the trail of Mafia money in the UK.

- We organised the contacts for him, in the Channel Islands and Guernsey

in particular. - Tax havens.

- Tax havens, yeah. No-one could put a figure on it,

but you're talking multi-millions, not billions of... it was lira then,

of course, coming through London and going to various sources.

- So Falcone was aware that there was a connection

between Mafia money

made from drugs in Italy... - Correct.

.. and laundering in the UK? - Exactly.

KEMP: Falcone had become a thorn in the Sicilian Mafia's side.

- I saw him in a meeting here in Rome.

I went to speak to him, and he said: "The message is going out:

I'm becoming too effective, causing too much trouble,

and my time is up."

- He said that? - Yes.

KEMP: Just two weeks later, Falcone was assassinated.

REPORTER: The Falcone bomb was a ruthless demonstration

of the Mafia's military might.

KEMP: Not long before Falcone's death,

Gus had been collaborating with his Italian counterparts

on a confidential report.

He submitted his findings to London.

- We prepared a thing called the Rome Report, which is entitled:

‘The Mafia and why it matters to us.'

One of the main conclusions in our report

is in the field of money laundering, that the Italians believed that we,

the United Kingdom, have the most cause for concern,

and the monies being generated had been passing through London,

offshore, and into property and businesses.

We were trying to make people aware as to the dangers

we'd suffer as a result of Italian organised crime's activities.

KEMP: Gus' Rome Report documented evidence

of alleged dirty money from the Mafia infiltrating Britain.

So how far did it go?

- It went to the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary.

- And did we take it seriously?

- Very few people did. If you spoke to anyone then,

and probably now, and mentioned it, what the situation is,

they'd say, "No idea what you're talking about."

KEMP: Gus believes his copy of this report

is one of the few that remain.

- It's still very relevant. It's far worse.

- Basically, that report you wrote 30 years ago

is even more relevant now. - Correct.

- But people remain ignorant of it? - Exactly.

We're still in denial. We were in denial then.

It worked with some, but not many.

KEMP: According to Gus, the report may not have been taken seriously

by the British government of the day,

but when it was leaked to a newspaper,

the Mafia took it very seriously.

For you personally, Gus,

what happened when the report was leaked?

- Named me. And my son, he was going to school.

He came back upstairs and said, "Dad, I've found three bullets

on our doorstep."

- How old was he? - He was 11.

And of course, there are... my family has three members:

me, my wife and my son. - Pretty clear message, isn't it?

- Clear message, but that's exactly what happened.

KEMP: Although the Rome Report

was investigating the Sicilian Mafia,

in the 30 years since Gus left Italy,

it is the 'Ndrangheta wing of the Mafia

that has expanded global operations.

- They are now the power, especially with cocaine trafficking.

Not just Europe or Italy, worldwide, they control it. And of course,

that generates even more money, huge amounts of money.

- There's no point earning lots of money

unless you can actually spend it. - Exactly. A huge percentage

goes through London.

KEMP: Gus believes that Britain has been laundering money

for many years.

If that's true, how is it getting there?

- I never got stopped. I never, ever got looked at.

Straight away straight through.

ROSS KEMP: On a recent trip to Italy I was told that by the 1990s

Britain had become a possible location

to launder Mafia money.

(Italian)

London? - London.

KEMP: But if that's the case, how did large amounts of cash

make it across the border?

I'm hoping that a bizarre news story

about a British-Italian housewife from Lancashire

might give me some answers.

In 1994, Marisa Merico,

a mother of two, was jailed for laundering illegal money

here in the UK.

She's now out of prison and living in Britain,

and willing to talk to me.

- Hi, hi! - How are you?

- Good, thank you.

KEMP: Marisa Merico is the daughter

of one of Italy's most notorious Mafia godfathers,

Emilio Di Giovine.

- My mother is from here. - Oh, right.

- A northern girl. And then she went to Italy.

She was an au pair out there, and that's where she met my dad,

and I came along in 1970.

KEMP: Her parents' separation

would lead to an extraordinary double life,

with Marisa living between Lancashire and Milan.

Very nice house. - Thank you.

I feel very lucky to be here.

- In many ways? - Yeah.

There's been quite dangerous times in my life,

especially when I got married. - What? Why, when you got married?

- Cos there was two bike riders waiting at my wedding

to shoot my dad. They were ready. - Sicarios?

It could have been a bloodbath, my wedding.

I was about three months pregnant at the time when I got married too.

KEMP: Having served two life sentences,

Emilio Di Giovine has now retired from his former life.

- This is my dad. Papa! - Eh. Oh, sorry.

- Hello. I'm Ross.

- Hi. - (she laughs)

KEMP: Emilio is now working as a chef in Italy,

and has flown over to meet me.

Effectively, your dad was a boss inside the 'Ndrangheta, correct?

- Yeah, that's right.

And everybody looked up to him, everybody had respect.

So they treated me a bit different, I guess.

Yeah.

- Any guy that came near your daughter, that'd be a no-no.

Marisa's grandmother, Maria Serraino,

known as Granny Heroin,

ran a notorious Mafia clan with her son, Emilio.

They were the bosses of a hugely profitable

drug-trafficking operation based in Milan.

Aged just 17, Marisa moved to Italy

to join the family business.

- I got involved, little by little, because I was clean,

with an English passport. - A very handy thing to have.

- Oh, yeah. I used to be able to go through airports, get past anything

because I looked so innocent. - What were you actually doing?

- I was taking money

to pay for the shipments of the cannabis.

I used to like big, Bridget Jones knickers, that's what you call them.

- Right - And stuff all the money

all round, like this. - Yeah, yeah.

- To the point where it wouldn't look suspicious.

- How much were you carrying?

- 150,000, more.

I was quite slim. - FATHER: 150,000.

And I could... I could fit quite a lot. I never got stopped.

I never, ever got looked at.

KEMP: Marisa made the perfect money mule.

No-one suspected her, which was great for the family business.

A week? - A week, yeah.

- Wow! - He was supplying nine countries.

- But when you're making that kind of cash,

you've got to clean it somehow.

And it wasn't a problem laundering it?

In Switzerland, Emilio and Marisa's Mafia family

deposited millions of pounds of drug money

into various banks and other businesses.

- We had an accountant that made us shareholders of,

I think... waterworks shareholders.

We had a leather factory.

You know, we just invested a lot of money into that,

just laundered it like that.

- So you've gone from being in Lancashire

to owning a waterworks treatment and a leather factory,

and transporting 150,000... - Above.

..in your knickers? - Yeah.

KEMP: When Emilio was arrested for murder in 1992,

Marisa was expected to lead

one of the most dangerous crime families in Europe

at the age of just 22.

So you became a boss, effectively? He trusts you,

that's why you take that position. - Yeah. You're right in that way.

Yeah. So I used to go every weekend to prison.

- Were you conducting business

when you met your dad? - Yeah. Well, he was giving me notes

to give to all his men.

The organisation was still going for another year.

- Making lots of... - Money.

KEMP: Marisa's time running the family business

was soon cut short: her aunt turned police informant,

giving up the names of the entire organisation.

- That's 300 people. - Arrested.

- Her own son, her own mum.

Yeah.

KEMP: In the chaos, Marisa fled to the UK.

- I managed to get my daughter back to my mum's.

- Yeah. - I then transferred

just short of £500,000 to the UK.

- From where? - Coutts Bank.

KEMP: Coutts is one of the most reputable

and elite private banks in Britain.

- I then bought myself a showhome, because it was already kitted out,

and I came with nothing, had to leave everything behind.

And then about a year later,

they came knocking. - Who are 'they?'

- Customs and Excise. Bang, bang, bang.

Came in and searched the house.

I was arrested, and I got taken to the police station in Blackpool.

Then I got transferred to HMP Durham.

- What were you convicted of? - Money laundering.

I got convicted, three years, nine months.

KEMP: By buying her showhome in the UK,

Marisa was cleaning Mafia money through a legitimate investment.

What about the Italian authorities? Did they not want you?

- Yes. So as soon as I got released in Durham,

I get extradited to Italy. Got ten years,

taken down to six years.

- When you look back on it now,

is it like looking back at somebody else's life?

- Yeah, it is.

You're living your life looking behind you all the time.

You know, I'm a strong woman. I'm a survivor, I guess,

in a lot of ways. - So's your dad.

- Yeah.

KEMP: Marisa's extraordinary story has revealed

how a British bank inadvertently handled Mafia money.

REPORTER: Experts suspect billions of pounds are laundered

into the UK through property every year.

KEMP: A number of British banks have been investigated

by the Financial Conduct Authority.

In 2012, Coutts was fined £8.75 million

but that was dwarfed by other fines. Over the next ten years,

HSBC was charged 64 million,

NatWest 264 million,

and Santander and Standard Chartered

were fined over 100 million each.

All were found to have serious and persistent gaps

in their anti-money laundering controls in the UK.

- Banks in Britain and around the world

unwittingly launder millions of pounds

of so-called dirty money. Laundering,

as it's known, effectively turns criminal money

into legitimate money, making it harder for the authorities

to trace its origins and so track down the criminals.

KEMP: If the Mafia were washing dirty money in Britain,

how long has it been going on for?

I'm about to meet someone who was operating on the inside.

Thanks for agreeing to meet us. - (distorted voice) No problem.

KEMP: In the late '80s and early 1990s,

‘Keef,' a pseudonym,

worked as an undercover money launderer

for UK Customs and Excise. The people he deceived

and helped to prosecute are so dangerous

that even more than 30 years on,

Keef will only conduct this interview

anonymously and with an altered voice.

When when do your bosses decide that you're the kind of person

that should work undercover? - I'd been in Investigation

for a number of years by that stage, and a new team had been set up

that dealt with high-level criminals,

and the idea was that we were to infiltrate drug cartels

and get as much information as possible.

- But you were putting your life on the line,

weren't you? - You do have to accept

that there is a fair amount of danger in what you're doing.

KEMP: In the early 1990s, as the US Mob weakened,

the South American drug cartels

started dealing directly with their European counterparts.

Keef was introduced to the cartels by an undercover DEA agent

as a specialised money launderer.

- The Americans had picked up physical amounts of cash

from the Mafia, and they would then bring it to me, physically,

in London, in suitcases. I would actually take that money

and put it through the bank, into our shell companies

in this country.

KEMP: Shell companies are inactive businesses,

used as a front for legitimising dirty money.

- What they didn't realise was,

the people that were washing the money

were in fact undercover agents from the DEA and UK Customs.

KEMP: Keef and his fellow undercover operatives

were part of a vast international money laundering investigation

into the cartels and the Mafia in the early 1990s

called Operation Green Ice.

REPORTER: For the first time, British Customs

was about to launder money as part of an operation.

KEMP: In order for the cartels and the Mafia to trust Keef',

he posed as a successful businessman.

- Drove a Rolls Royce car in the UK.

- Sorry, hang on a minute. You drove a Rolls Royce?

- Yes, it was a seized car from a gold smuggler

that we'd adapted, and they provided me with a luxury flat.

- That's important, isn't it?

It's not just that you show up in these things once every month,

you have to live that life permanently.

- Yeah, it did put the pressure. I didn't see my children, my wife.

KEMP: Once embedded, the scale of the problem

soon became apparent.

Just how much money laundering was going on at that time?

- There was quite a lot.

The late '80s, early '90s,

some of the overseas banks that were here in the City

would not ask too many questions of their customer.

It's big, big business.

I think the money laundering business

is the third largest industry in the world,

behind oil and agriculture.

It's massive.

KEMP: To expose this vast criminal operation,

Keef and his team had to try and flush out the people at the top.

- We would be able to slow things down,

cause problems in the financial system.

Then you'll be surprised how many people come out of the woodwork

to find out where their money is.

- So part of your money laundering operation

was actually to pass on intelligence

that would reveal who was at the top of the tree?

- That was the objective all the time.

- And you were following it all the way?

- Oh, it was always being tracked, yeah.

And it exposed the Mafia in a big way

to identify all their money laundering people.

KEMP: Operation Green Ice relied on a global intelligence network

involving agents at the highest possible levels,

and in September 1992, it came to a head.

REPORTER: In a series of raids, over 200 people,

including seven major financiers, arrested.

- Eight countries took part on the day

in a simultaneous bust, and one of the major people was a guy

who the Italian police described as

the major cocaine trafficker in the world.

That also led to them identifying over 1.3 billion had been invested

by the Mafia in hotels, small industries and shops.

So it was a big, big hit.

KEMP: Operation Green Ice resulted in the arrests

of major players from the Colombian cartels

and the Italian Mafia. Millions of pounds, dollars, jewels

and property were seized.

They found more than 700 kilogrammess of drugs,

and closed 15 companies used as fronts

for trafficking and money laundering.

It's still to this day

one of the biggest single takedown operations ever conducted.

Were you not at risk

when this operation was finally closed?

- Yes, but you hope that your colleagues

are looking after your back.

- Did you take any other kind of steps

in order to ensure your safety?

- Yeah, I did take a little bit of a drastic step:

I decided that I'd have cosmetic surgery to change my appearance,

because I was still working against cartel members at the time.

- That was a bit drastic. - I felt more comfortable

meeting them, and it gave me confidence that I could carry on.

- How and why did it come to an end for you?

- I'd done enough, and also you can't go on for that long

doing this work. It's not the life of a normal person,

and its's time to get out.

- Thanks for agreeing to talk to us. - No problem.

KEMP: Operation Green Ice may have achieved its goal,

but money laundering is still crucial

to the success of any organised crime group.

Some people believe financial institutions around the world

were kept afloat by illegal money

during the chaos of the financial crisis in 2008.

- Without the drug money, many bank would collapse.

ROSS KEMP: To uncover the link between Britain and the Mafia

has been an epic task

that has finally brought me full circle.

The first example I heard of possible Mafia activity in the UK

was when I discovered that banker Roberto Calvi's body

had been found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge

in June 1982.

Professor John Dickie believed that banker Calvi

was murdered for losing the Mafia's money

through his failing Banco Ambrosiano.

- This is where things really start to get dangerous,

because... - Calvi starts to lose Mafia money?

- He starts to lose Mafia money. - Very, very good reasons

for getting rid of him. - Yeah.

- So what is he doing in London?

- It may well be that he was looking around for more money

to try and save his banks, using his contacts in the City.

KEMP: So is the relationship between Britain and the Mafia

about money?

REPORTER: Since 1994, all British banks

have had to report to the police any transaction

they find suspicious, but they're not obliged

to search out dirty money.

KEMP: In 2020, police seized £2m from a Lloyds Bank account

that was directly traceable to the Italian Mafia.

In global financial terms, this was small change.

But in 2008, an extraordinary world event

offered a new perspective on illegal money

in the banking system.

REPORTER: It was the biggest bankruptcy in history,

and the tipping point into global recession.

Stock markets tumbled, and businesses went to the wall.

- This has been an extraordinarily serious set of events.

KEMP: Sixteen years ago, the world found itself

in the midst of an unprecedented global financial collapse.

- This was the biggest single economic crash of our lifetimes.

REPORTER: Banks' funding sources have dried up,

billions of pounds no longer accessible.

- You have to find the money.

KEMP: With the banks running out of cash,

they desperately needed liquidity.

REPORTER: A global financial system is developing

that benefits those who wish to hide and move dirty money.

KEMP: Some experts believe that during the Credit Crunch,

a number of financial institutions around the world

were propped up by using illegal funds.

- During the financial crisis of 2008,

drug money saved from bankruptcy

many banks around the world.

No-one say no to those money.

KEMP: And the then director of The Office Of United Nations

Against Crime & Drugs, Antonio Costa, stated that...

It has never been proved, or suggested,

that any UK bank was propped up

by illegal drug money during the Credit Crunch,

but the spectre of laundering illegal money through Britain

by organised crime groups still persists.

- The City of London now is one of the centres

of money laundering in the world, and everybody's aware of that.

- If you were to withdraw illegal money in the City of London,

would the City of London carry on working functionally?

I don't think it would.

I think that if you were to identify all money coming into the City

from illegal origin, then that might collapse.

KEMP: The success of money laundering

in the last 25 years has grown largely because of

the digitisation of currency and financial transactions.

- You're seeing networks of criminals operating online,

co-operating with one another as money launderers,

as malicious code writers all focused on financial gain.

- Could banks do more to help the police

track down the money launderers? - Practices are coming to light

that have got to be dealt with,

cleaning up the banking system of our country.

REPORTER: ..anonymised transactions

which can be almost impossible for the police to trace.

KEMP: And the Mafia have always been

at the forefront of criminal evolution.

- Now they are of the age of the analogical reality

and the digital, virtual, the idea that they can work online

using cryptocurrencies, using the Dark Web

to sell narcotics.

So they are always a step ahead

compared to the authorities

and the short sight of the politicians.

- No British bank has ever been found guilty

of laundering Mafia money, but it's been speculated

that it happens. I've travelled from London

to cities across the United States, to the mountains of Colombia,

to the coastlines of Spain and Italy.

The one thing that's become clear is the reason the Mafia has survived

so long is its ability

to remain one step ahead of the authorities, to be less visible.

Maybe that is their greatest skill.

If they are here,

then detecting them is getting harder and harder.

(dramatic music)

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