Antonio Bardellino

Antonio Bardellino (San Cipriano d'Aversa, 1945 - Rio de Janiero, July 1988) was a powerful Neapolitan Camorrista and boss of the Casalesi clan, having a prominent role in the organized crime in the province of Caserta during the 1980's. He was one of the last of the old style Camorra godfathers.

Biography

Powerful Camorrista

Originally from San Cipriano d'Aversa, Bardellino was an important Cosa Nostra affiliate in the region of Campania, with close and powerful contacts within the Sicilian Mafia. While the Nuvoletta brothers and Michele Zaza were allied with the Corleonesi headed by Luciano Liggio and Salvatore Riina, Bardellino was allied with Rosario Riccobono, Stefano Bontade, Gaetano Badalamenti, and Tommaso Buscetta, all heads of fallen Palermo families which were defeated by the Corleonesi, and forced to flee.

Antonio Bardellino was greatly feared and respected in the local underworld of Campania. He is also one of the few Camorra bosses who did not carry a nickname. Bardellino was the founder of the Casalesi clan, around which for almost a decade moved a united confederation of families (Schiavone, Bidognetti, Zagaria, Iovine, Venosa) rooted in a large territory which extended from southern Lazio through the agro aversano (countryside near Aversa), to Naples.

Underworld Rackets

It is believed that Antonio Bardellino was the initiator of the events of Camorra membership of Casal di Principe and San Cipriano d'Aversa, especially due to the transformation he implemented with the functioning of the clan. The rituals of affiliation remained as well as the rate of murders, but the leap in quality was represented by the continued infiltration of the legal Capitalist economy with the proceeds of illicit trafficking. This was favoured by extraordinary events, such as the 1980 Irpinia earthquake and the subsequent reconstruction (affair that prompted the families to create a consortium for their companies that performed the work of earthmoving, building houses and roads), and the great entrepreneurial ability of Bardellino himself who owned together with other clans an import/export firm of fish meal, which in fact covered up a colossal cocaine smuggling operation from Brazil to Italy. Besides controlling the cocaine trade, he shared the heroin trade with Lorenzo Nuvoletta and Ciro Manzarella, on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia.

Nuova Famiglia

Bardellino was the main exponent of the Nuova Famiglia (NF), a confederation of clans that was formed to contrast the growing power of the predominant Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), led by Raffaele Cutolo. The NF consisted of Bardellino, Michele Zaza (a Camorra boss with strong ties with Cosa Nostra), the Gionta clan (from Torre Annunziata), the Nuvoletta clan from Marano, the Alfieri clan led by Carmine Alfieri, the Galasso clan of Poggiomarino (led by Pasquale Galasso), the Giuliano clan from Naples' quarter Forcella (led by Luigi Giuliano and the Vollaro clan from Portici (led by Luigi Vollaro). [it icon [http://www.napolionline.org/wiki/doku.php?id=camorra:i_clan:alfieri Alfieri clan] ]

The resulting war between the NF and the NCO resulted in a large number of victims from both sides, and ended with the NCO's defeat and the victory of the NF. However, with Cutolo and the NCO out of the picture, the NF alliance soon disintegrated, with a war breaking out between the Bardellino and Nuvoletta clans towards the end of 1983.

War with the Nuvoletta's

While the Second Mafia War between the Corleonesi and the Bontade-Buscetta-Inzerillo-Badalamenti faction was being fought in Sicily, its effects were being felt on the Campanian underworld. The Corleonesi boss, Salvatore Riina, mandated Lorenzo Nuvoletta to order the murder of Tommaso Buscetta. Nuvoletta, in turn, passed the order to Bardellino. The order was not brought to an end, because Bardellino had been good friends with Buscetta in Sicily, and had once shared the same house with Buscetta in Brazil when the latter was absconding. He also deeply distrusted the Nuvoletta's and was unwilling to accept the supremacy of the Nuvoletta brothers with the interference of the Corleonesi. Bardellino's attitude soon marked him for death, and he would spend the last years of life in hiding outside Italy, including Spain, Brazil and Santo Domingo.

Towards the end of 1982, thanks to a tip off from the local police, Antonio Bardellino managed to evade capture in his Rio De Janiero apartment. Despite this setback, a meeting was soon arranged between Bardellino and the Nuvolettas in Zurich, but Aniello Nuvoletta was arrested at the rendezvous. Many other leaders of the Nuvoletta clan would have been arrested had they not suffered a chance accident in Northern Italy, near the Swiss border. Bardellino was arrested soon after in Spain, but he was inexpicably released on bail and disappeared soon afterwards.

Victory

The clash with the Nuvoletta clan resulted in Bardellino's victory. An attack was made at the Nuvoletta family's farm in Marano which resulted in the death of Ciro Nuvoletta, one of the brothers. Two months later, events culminated with an attack at Torre Annunziata, an area infamous for its illegal activities, which led to the massacre of eight members of the Gionta clan allied with the Nuvolettas at the Circolo dei Pescatori (fisherman's club). Another twenty four were wounded. This episode was known as the Torre Annunziata massacre in the local press, and is perhaps the worst gangland massacre to ever take place in Italy.

This victory further allowed Antonio Bardellino to expand his sphere of control and influence to include almost the entire province of Caserta and Naples. In spite of being a fugitive sought by Interpol, Bardellino could exercise his power and coordinate criminal activities unhindered, but the disagreements came with the Casalesi itself.

Assassination

According to the official version of the story, Antonio Bardellino was murdered in 1988 in Brazil in his house at Buzios, a beach resort for the rich and famous in the State of Rio de Janeiro, as part of an internal feud within the Casalesi. However, this story has never been clarified because his body was never found and the alleged assassin, Mario Iovine, was himself murdered in Portugal in 1991. These circumstances have fueled a legend that Bardellino is still alive and has left power in the hands of the other families within the Casalesi clan in order to ensure the survival of his family.

When his old friend, Tommaso Buscetta who later became a pentito was asked about the status of Bardellino during a trial, he replied: "Is it already obvious that Bardellino died? I do not know, but I do not believe that he is dead." After the news of Bardellino's death spread, his family left their homes and native areas to take refuge in Formia where they still reside. After the disappearance of Antonio Bardellino, the five families (Schiavone, Iovine, Bidognetti, De Falco and Zagaria) took control, each with their own army. [ [http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/CasalesiClan.html The Casalasi clan of the Camorra] ]

References

* http://www.csm.it/quaderni/quad_99a/quad_99_3.pdf
* Verbali Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia. XI e XIV Legislatura.
*Behan, Tom (1996). "The Camorra", London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-09987-0