On August 14, 2018, an approximately 250-meter long section of the highway bridge collapsed after a heavy rainstorm. Debris, cars and trucks plummeted 150 feet. 43 people lost their lives. The eyes of the world were on the scene of the disaster. What no one saw at the time: a mafia drug transporter was among the crashed vehicles.
It was only four years after the accident that it became known that the `Ndrangheta wanted to transport 900 kilos of hashish to Naples in a yellow refrigerated truck at the time of the accident. This is evident from tapped conversations between two mafiosi who commented on a video of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge on March 9, 2020, 19 months after the accident.
“We do half and half”
“If you look at the first video, you see a van. It crashed. It’s a Eurocargo. You can see it very well because it’s yellow. It’s slanted under another car,” one mafioso says to the other, ‘there’s a cooling chamber inside.’
The two Italians speak of 900 kilograms of hash that they bought from the “Africans” and which are in the cold room. “The blacks think the goods are lost. Let’s get the refrigerated truck and we’ll do half and half». In fact, the yellow truck does not appear on the official list of destroyed cars – but in the investigations against the ‘Ndrangheta.
For years, the Mafia hunters of Reggio Calabria have set their sights on the Calabrian Bellocco clan, among others. The mafia cell is also active in Switzerland, for example, a member in Tessin was sentenced to nine years in prison for trafficking cocaine.
78 arrests during Operation Night Blue
Earlier this week, in the so-called Operation “Blu Notte” (night blue), 78 people were arrested in 16 Italian provinces. 48 mafiosi are imprisoned. In addition to drug trafficking, they are also suspected of illegal possession of weapons, extortion and money laundering. The surprising story of the yellow refrigerated truck on the Morandi Bridge also fits into this.
The drug transporter was in the depot of the State of Genoa-Bolzaneto for more than a month, seized by the investigative authorities, as were all the vehicles recovered from that accident. This is reported by the newspaper “La Repubblica”. Then the vehicle was released – without ever looking into the cold room. The crushed truck was towed to Latina along with its cargo. Then, with the help of the Neapolitan Mafia, Camorra first reached Frosinone and then Calabria.