The Good Mothers

You are born in it or marry in. Loyalty is absolute – bloodshed revered. You go to prison, your grave, or kill your relatives before betraying The Family. The 'Ndrangheta is the most powerful, stealthy organised crime network in Italy and worldwide, upheld by the omertà [silence] code. This is the story of the women who broke the silence. Founded more than 150 years ago by old shepherding families and orange farmers in the toe of southern Italy, the Calabrian mafia is one of the richest and most ruthless organized crime syndicates in the world. It runs 70% of the cocaine and heroin in Europe, manages billion-dollar extortion rackets, plunders the Italian state and the European Union and brokers illegal arms around the world. The industrial-scale money laundering required to clean hundreds of billions of euros – the Calabrians' own and other mafias' wealth that they process for a fee – ensures they are in all our lives. We live in their buildings, work in their companies, shop in...