The 'Ndrangheta: Versatile Middlemen in the Cocaine Pipeline to Europe

[Judi Lynn]

1. The 'Ndrangheta Connection to Colombia's Paramilitaries

AUC
/23 NOV 2022 BY DOUWE DEN HELDEN

Salvatore Mancuso, one of the most powerful paramilitary commanders in Colombia, and Giorgio Sale, a well-connected Italian businessman, helped each other become rich men.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the two became lynchpins of a connection between the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s largest mafia group, and Colombian paramilitaries, which lasts to this day.

Mancuso headed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC), which controlled vast areas of coca production across the country. The paramilitary group needed buyers for cocaine and partners to launder the immense wealth they were accumulating, and Mancuso set out to find them.

Giorgio Sale was the perfect partner. He was an Italian entrepreneur with plentiful investments all over Colombia and a good reputation among the South American country’s upper classes. His businesses included the luxury clothing company Gino Passcalli, which had dozens of stores and employed over 600 workers. He counted several judges on Colombia’s Supreme Court among his circle of friends. And his fine-dining restaurants were focal points for the societal elites of Colombia’s main cities.

More:
https://insightcrime.org/investigations/ndrangheta-connection-colombia-paramilitaries/