Italy fights mafia with a new strategy: take their sons

Riccardo Cordi’, a shy 18-year-old scion of one of Italy’s most notorious mob families, is a pioneer in a new strategy to fight the mafia by exiling crime clan sons from their homes and families. Riccardo is the first of about 20 sons sent into a kind of rehab away from the mob by juvenile courts in the southern region of Calabria, home to the dangerous ‘Ndrangheta syndicate. By age 16, Riccardo seemed destined to go the way of his father, a reputed boss gunned down in a turf war, and three elder brothers in prison on mafia-related convictions. But when Riccardo was charged with attempted theft and damage to a police car, Judge Roberto Di Bella followed up his acquittal with a startling order: The ‘Ndrangheta family prince would be sent away to Sicily.

If you don’t like it, we’ll take him away anyway.

Judge Roberto Di Bella to Riccardo’s mother

Judge Di Bella had sent Riccardo’s three brothers to prison and wanted to spare the last son a similar fate. Riccardo was placed in a Sicilian facility for troubled youths where nobody cared that he was a Cordi’. Rules were rigid, including no going out at night. Everyone made their own bed and sat down for meals at a communal table. Two years later, after intensive work with a psychologist, visiting Mafia victims and volunteering with children, Riccardo has been returned to his hometown. Five months in, he still says he won’t be following the family trade.

Odd News Mafia