Tony Soprano may have said there is no mafia, but Italian police have real-life mafia initiation rites on video.
Italian police arrested 40 suspected Mafioso after multiple raids across the north of the boot-shaped country, according to MSN. A two-year investigation complete with wiretaps and hidden cameras led to the arrests on charges of criminal association, illegal arms sales and extortion. Thirty-seven are behind bars while three are on house arrest. Those captured include boss Giuseppe Larosa, known by the nickname "Peppe the Cow."
"For the first time the swearing-in ceremonies have been recorded live," Milan prosecutor Ilda Boccassini told journalists at a press conference, according to MSN."For the first time we heard it from the voice of the mafia."
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Police believe the people they apprehended are members of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, a family of gangs even more feared than the Sicilian mafia, according to MSN. The tight clan's name, 'Ndrangheta, comes from the Greek meaning "courage" or "loyalty."
Video and audio obtained show a swearing in ceremony to an elite level known as "Santa," according to MSN. New members are told they must always have an extra bullet in the event they are disloyal, according to ABC. "From now on it will not be other men who judge you; you will judge yourselves," the leader of the ritual in the video said.
"Right in this holy evening, in the silence of the night, under the light of the stars and under the splendor of the moon, I create the holy chain. On behalf of Garibaldi, Mazzini and Lamarmora, with words of humility I create the holy society," the man on the video said. Recruits pledge to "safeguard my wise brothers."
Boccassini referenced a wiretapped conversation from July 2013 in which boss Michelangelo Chindamo warned mobsters that "having a mobile phone in your pocket ... is like having a policeman in your pocket," which is exactly the type of thing that brought the family down, according to MSN.
Boccassini said the evidence is so iron-clad that the arrested will be under a "fast-track," avoiding preliminary hearings, according to MSN.
