Mala del Brenta

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The Mala del Brenta is a criminal organisation based in the Veneto, Italy.

The criminal organisation's structure is believed to be based upon some elements of the Cosa Nostra and Camorra model.^[1] It is considered by the Italian government and Prefecture of Venice as including all the characteristics of Article 416 bis-cp,[2] the legislative definition of a mafia-type organisation with Mafia (Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra) affiliations within Italy.[3] It has been referred to by several different names including: Mafia del Brenta, Malavita del Brenta, Mala or Mafia del Piovese.

1 Origins
2 Affiliations
- 2.1 Recent Operations
3 Notes

[edit] Origins

Having originally spawned from the Southern Italian organised crime syndicates, whom had operated and infiltrated the Veneto region during the 70's, their vision of unifying Veneto banditry into a mafia-style syndicate was first realised under the leadership of Felice "Angel Face" Maniero[4] throughout the 1980s and 90's.

These original Sicilian mafiosi controlled much of the mafia activity in the Veneto, throughout the 60's and 70's, and included most notably: Salvatore "Totuccio" Contorno, Gaetano Fidanzati, Antonino Duca and Gaetano & Salvatore Badalamenti and Giuseppe Madonia.[5] Veneti malavitosi, or underworld figures and bandits from the Veneto, learned from these Sicilians the necessary means for organising themselves and taking the reins of control from the successive two decades. What started as a small gang of criminals controlling racketeering along the Riviera del Brenta between Padua and Venice, became an international syndicate under the "boss", Felice "Angel Face" Maniero.^[2] [6] Their criminal stranglehold escalated as they became increasingly organised with the assistance of a major Sicilian mafia boss who was stationed in the Veneto region at that time.^[3].

[edit] Affiliations

The organisation has a number of high-level political connections outside Italy (Croatia and Yugoslavia, Malta, Hungary and possibly Austria).^[4] At one point, Maniero was a personal friend of the son of the former Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and was involved in the supply of guns to Croatia, in the early 1990s.^[5]

Its members are exclusively native to the Veneto region, but with a number of associates operating in the region from Cosa Nostra, Camorra and it is believed from the Ndrangheta as well.^[6] It is also known that Brenta mafiosi have colluded with Stidda members on a number of occasions involving a number of fraudulent scams at a Maltese casino in 2002.[7]

[edit] Recent Operations

The organisation was thought to be dismantled in the late 1990s, due to revelations of the former "boss" Maniero, who had turned police informant. Although it has been revealed that Maniero continued a number of criminal activities and many of his former henchmen re-organised the Mala del Brenta to ensure survival. Acclaimed journalist, Maurizio Dianese, is reportedly working on an updated sequel to his book Il bandito Felice Maniero.^[7]

In May of 2005, Francesco Tonicello an old member of the organisation, was arrested in London after having been on the run for a number of years as one of Italy's most wanted men. A master forger, he worked under 11 aliases and fenced priceless artworks, antiques and gold for Venetian godfather "Angel Face" Maniero.[8] Concurrently, some of the former members re-organised themselves as the so-called Nuova Mafia del Brenta and were responsible for a foiled attempt at murdering the former founding boss Maniero.[9] Although much of the Nuova Malavita has been dismantled due to a recent police blitz^[8] during Operation "Ghost Dog",[10] it has not seen the end of the activities in the region.^[9]