AlainLocke
Banned
Organized Crime Pays
When you join the Mafia, you begin with a low starting salary. Your title would be picciotto d’onore (“boy of honor”) if you were in the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, or guaglione (“boy”) if you were in the Neapolitan Camorra—whatever you were called, you wouldn’t be making all that much, though you’d probably earn more than you could at a legal job in those parts of Southern Italy. You might bring in $2,500 to $4,000 a month to start. Then, as you took on more responsibility (and if you managed to survive), your salary would increase to around $6,500 to $13,000 a month. If you worked your way up to become one of the boss’s right-hand men, you could get a monthly stipend of $32,000 to $38,000. If you were a vicecapo, second-in-command to the boss, you’d receive about $130,000 a month. And bosses—well, it’s impossible to even guess how much they can take in.
In general, criminal organizations have a lot of members, but most of them don’t actually earn that much money, even though their jobs may be very dangerous. But zone bosses (those who control a “piazza,” or a fixed territory) and capos can earn truly significant sums. Members of La Santa, a secret society that’s made up of the highest-ranking members of the ’Ndrangheta, make a reported $130,000 a month. The monthly salaries of zone bosses in Scampia (the fulcrum of Neapolitan drug trafficking) range from $65,000 to $130,000. And along with the money come various benefits like cars, properties, and shares of their legitimate companies.
Then each clan offers its own form of insurance. If you have a disabled child, your base salary rises. If (or when) you are killed, your family receives money for your funeral and a “death allowance.” When a member of a powerful clan is killed, the family can decide to receive a lump sum of $130,000 to $260,000 or a monthly stipend, which is paid to the dead man’s widow, mother, or girlfriend (provided she is the mother of his children). There are also prison allowances.
I will never forget a scene I witnessed a few years ago in a courtroom in Naples. They were sentencing a Camorra family, and I went, as I often do, to watch the trial. When they read the sentence, I saw one of the defendants, only 24 or 25 years old, cover his face with his hands as he heard that he’d received eight years in prison. He was in the cage, the cell from which detainees participate in the trial. One of my police bodyguards, after seeing how young he was, tried to comfort him: “If you behave, your sentence will be reduced—you’ll see,” he said. “Plus, this is only the first level. The sentence could still change.” (In Italy there are three levels of court, and the first two allow for appeals.)
When you join the Mafia, you begin with a low starting salary. Your title would be picciotto d’onore (“boy of honor”) if you were in the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, or guaglione (“boy”) if you were in the Neapolitan Camorra—whatever you were called, you wouldn’t be making all that much, though you’d probably earn more than you could at a legal job in those parts of Southern Italy. You might bring in $2,500 to $4,000 a month to start. Then, as you took on more responsibility (and if you managed to survive), your salary would increase to around $6,500 to $13,000 a month. If you worked your way up to become one of the boss’s right-hand men, you could get a monthly stipend of $32,000 to $38,000. If you were a vicecapo, second-in-command to the boss, you’d receive about $130,000 a month. And bosses—well, it’s impossible to even guess how much they can take in.
In general, criminal organizations have a lot of members, but most of them don’t actually earn that much money, even though their jobs may be very dangerous. But zone bosses (those who control a “piazza,” or a fixed territory) and capos can earn truly significant sums. Members of La Santa, a secret society that’s made up of the highest-ranking members of the ’Ndrangheta, make a reported $130,000 a month. The monthly salaries of zone bosses in Scampia (the fulcrum of Neapolitan drug trafficking) range from $65,000 to $130,000. And along with the money come various benefits like cars, properties, and shares of their legitimate companies.
Then each clan offers its own form of insurance. If you have a disabled child, your base salary rises. If (or when) you are killed, your family receives money for your funeral and a “death allowance.” When a member of a powerful clan is killed, the family can decide to receive a lump sum of $130,000 to $260,000 or a monthly stipend, which is paid to the dead man’s widow, mother, or girlfriend (provided she is the mother of his children). There are also prison allowances.
I will never forget a scene I witnessed a few years ago in a courtroom in Naples. They were sentencing a Camorra family, and I went, as I often do, to watch the trial. When they read the sentence, I saw one of the defendants, only 24 or 25 years old, cover his face with his hands as he heard that he’d received eight years in prison. He was in the cage, the cell from which detainees participate in the trial. One of my police bodyguards, after seeing how young he was, tried to comfort him: “If you behave, your sentence will be reduced—you’ll see,” he said. “Plus, this is only the first level. The sentence could still change.” (In Italy there are three levels of court, and the first two allow for appeals.)
