How women became essential to the mafia’s survival

The Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, were once something of a side-show compared with the more famous Sicilian mafia. Now they are the largest criminal organisation in Europe. Last month, European police arrested more than 130 ’Ndrangheta members in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Spain in a coordinated swoop codenamed ‘Eureka’. Almost all have been charged with drug-dealing, money-laundering or crimes of violence.

The ’Ndrangheta traditionally specialised in kidnapping, operating in the inaccessible region of Aspromonte, the toe of Italy, for centuries out of reach of the forces of law and order. In the 1990s, the Italian government decided to build a steel plant and a port in Calabria. The steel plant never opened and the port, at Gioia Tauro, looked like another white elephant. But it was able to receive the largest container ships in the world, and the ’Ndrangheta saw their opportunity.