inflamed eyes suddenly, his face marked by wrinkles and sun, to the memory of the adventurous voyages in the Gulf of Naples. It was the time of smuggling by sea, of Marlboro boxes collected in the waves and blue hull that cuts through the foam as an arrow from a bow under tension. Today, Luciano no longer live trading "outlaw cigarettes." He spends his time sitting at a bar in Saint Lucia, the district of fishermen, between the seventies and eighties, became the "headquarters" of smugglers in Naples, but do not forget those emotions, "to make a million pounds per trip. A huge sum, but the risk was high. We had to take on the load off the coast of Capri, usually at night or at dawn. The time available was always short, often the captain of the mother ship tossed at sea crates and moved away to avoid crossing the financiers. It was our job, then go and retrieve it with great difficulty .... "
industry of "blondes" that the its heyday was known as the "Fiat South 'turnover and number of" employees "had been given up for dead too soon. Investigations, arrests, kidnappings had weakened yes, but not dismantled. So much so that she's back to the grind record profits and to employ an army of unemployed youth. If they remember, first, the investigators of the financial police of Naples, in 2009, confiscated 33 tons of smuggled cigarettes and 77 vehicles used for transportation. Yes, because now the 'blond' do not travel more along the motorways of the sea invisible. Better than asphalt, where it is easy to get confused in the traffic and among the unsuspecting motorists, maybe a trailer or driving a truck or anonymous - even - old Fiat discontinued, with the wheels crushed by the weight of the sticks hidden in the trunk of the body or nell'imbottitura.
precautions to avoid detection and checkpoints are endless, often part during rush hour, carefully choosing the route alongside the driver and a woman, so as to simulate a couple on holiday. Not always, though, the trick works. And that is why each load never exceeds five hundred pounds, to absorb the loss in the event of seizure. Routes have also been changed, compared to the seventies adventurous today the smugglers do not get more from the Balkans or Albania, but from Eastern Europe. And, at every border crossing, the gain is getting a bit 'more substantial: a package, low cost product in Ukraine, Poland comes in at 70 cents. The broker buy it in the stocking of Warsaw to € 1.50 and sell it to wholesalers to EUR 2.50. Smokers buy it at 3 € stalls that grow back are a bit 'everywhere, as the hinterland of Vesuvius in Naples, saving you € 1.50 on the price of the tobacco shop. Not just in times of crisis.
The real news, however, is that the market of contraband tobacco has been discovered class: the goods is not equal for everyone. There is a double sales channel, one dedicated to immigrants and the other Italians. The difference, needless to say, lies in the quality cigarettes at low cost are made of scraps, from contaminated areas of the former Soviet Union. A huge danger to health, so much so that the National Research Council in Rome, at the request of the court of Naples, is reviewing the level of toxicity contained in the "cigarettes of the poor." The suspicion is that they may increase the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
In recent months, investigations of the judiciary have helped to reveal this huge economic mechanism, the proceeds of which are calculated nell’ordine di decine di milioni di euro all’anno. Soldi che vanno a gonfiare i forzieri della criminalità organizzata, impegnata a gestire le fasi di approvvigionamento e vendita al dettaglio, in collaborazione con le mafie straniere, e che, agli occhi degli inquirenti, assumono il valore di vere e proprie «impronte digitali». Seguendo le centinaia di assegni che i contrabbandieri hanno girato alle banche di Varsavia e setacciando i conti correnti dei capi dell’organizzazione, i pm antimafia sono stati infatti in grado di ricostruire una fitta rete di rapporti d’affari illeciti che unisce i Paesi dell’ex «cortina di ferro» alla Cina comunista, dove – raccontano le ultime inchieste di Napoli e di Lecce – packets of contraband are even packaged with a lot of brand State monopoly. A further difficulty and unexpected, since the counterfeit items could easily fit into the channels of official sales, causing severe damage to public finances.
now, it's a struggle in the international sphere, leading to the adoption of the systems of investigation used, usually for drug investigations: environmental and wiretaps, surveillance with the GPS and finds the statements of regret crossed, revealing roles and organization criminal groups that do business with the "blondes." In calls by law enforcement spied on, cigarettes become "mozzarella" 'Perfume', 'shirts': a phrase book to try to cut off hiding the smell of nicotine to the nostrils of the hounds.
(Published in "South Il Sole 24 Ore, April 14, 2010)
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