{"id":67706,"date":"2019-07-18T20:49:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T19:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=67706"},"modified":"2019-07-21T04:25:19","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T03:25:19","slug":"italy-police-arrests-violent-nigerian-prostitution-drug-mafia-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/italy-police-arrests-violent-nigerian-prostitution-drug-mafia-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Police Arrests Violent Nigerian Prostitution, Drug\u00a0 Mafia Group"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Italian police said Thursday they had arrested 19 suspected members of a
\nNigerian mob, including the leaders of a clan which forged alliances
\nwith other mafias and violently punished any who rebelled.<\/p>\n

In an operation dubbed \u201cBurning Flame\u201d, coordinated by police in Bologna
\nand Turin, over 300 officers carried out arrests and searches in nine
\ncities across northern Italy, from Bergamo to Modena, Parma and Ravenna.<\/p>\n

A two-year probe \u2014 aided significantly by a man on the inside who fed
\ndetails to investigators \u2014 \u201chas allowed us to destroy much of what,
\nwithin the Nigerian community, is known as the \u2018Maphite\u2019 cult,\u201d police
\nsaid in a statement.<\/p>\n

It said the acronym stood for Maximum Academic Performance Highly
\nIntellectuals Train Executioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong those arrested were those who held a leading role within the
\ncriminal organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who decided on the new initiations, who ran the prostitution
\nrings, who dominated by force the other criminal organisations, who ran
\nthe drug trade in the city squares,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Police said the Nigerian mob used \u201curban guerrilla warfare which
\ncontinued for days at a time\u201d to maintain territorial control.<\/p>\n

The \u2018cult\u2019 was just one of a series of foreign organised crime groups
\nwhich had adopted Italian mafia codes, police said.<\/p>\n

While they have much in common, they are independently structured and
\n\u201cin strong rivalry with each other\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

\u2018Green bible\u2019
\nMaphite was founded back in the 1980s \u2014 along with other Nigerian gangs
\nsuch as the Black Axe and the Vikings \u2014 before developing into a
\nfull-blown organised crime group in the 1990s, police said.<\/p>\n

It adopted the moniker Green Circuit Association to camouflage its
\ninternational expansion and is now widespread in many countries around
\nthe world.<\/p>\n

The top mobsters are known in gang lingo as the Main Chief, Deputy Don,
\nChecker (the treasurer) and Fire \u2014 who is in charge of giving orders,
\nwhile an executive committee carries them out.<\/p>\n

Members have to follow strict rules of conduct laid out in the so-called
\n\u201cGreen Bible\u201d, kept safe by the leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew members are initiated following precise rituals, and treason is met
\nwith corporal or lethal punishment,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

Maphite maintains close ties to Nigeria, so that those who cross it fear
\nretaliation not just in Italy but there too, police said.<\/p>\n

Paolo Borgna, the deputy prosecutor in Turin, said the foreign mafias
\n\u201care born and develop by giving protection to their countrymen and
\ndeveloping a kind of parallel, ruthless and criminal justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a characteristic shared by all mafias: protection is offered,
\ncompensation is requested, protection is imposed and, finally, those who
\ndo not accept it are punished,\u201d he told journalists at a press
\nconference.<\/p>\n

He said Maphite had a common fund which the newly-affiliated paid into
\nwhen they joined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a refined mafia\u2026 but not one to be underestimated. It must be
\ncontained now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini hailed the
\n\u201cmaxi-operation\u201d, saying \u201cwe don\u2019t need this type of immigration. Ports
\nclosed, jails open.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Italian police said Thursday they had arrested 19 suspected members of a Nigerian mob, including the leaders of a clan which forged alliances with other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\nItaly Police Arrests Violent Nigerian Prostitution, Drug\u00a0 Mafia Group - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/other-news\/italy-police-arrests-violent-nigerian-prostitution-drug-mafia-group\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Italy Police Arrests Violent Nigerian Prostitution, Drug\u00a0 Mafia Group - 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