MAFIA MINORS Final Report DIPARTIMENTO GIUSTIZIA MINORILE Direzione Generale per gli interventi di giustizia minorile e l’attuazione dei provvedimenti giudiziari INSTITUTI PER STUDIMET PUBLIKE DHE LIGJORE Institute for Policy & Legal Studie (IPLS) AGIS 2004 With financial support from the AGIS Programme European Commission - Directorate General Justice and Home Affairs MAFIA MINORS final report ITALY 2004 - 2005 - 2 - Contents Page Acknowledgements pag. 5 Introduction pag. 6 Chapter 1. Mafia, minors and law enforcement in Italy Introduction pag. 7 A global overview of crime in Italy pag. 8 Juvenile delinquency and organised crime in Italy pag. 9 A theoretical pattern of relation between organised crime and juvenile gangs pag. 10 Foreign minors and deviance pag. 11 Example #1: the involvement of morocco minors in criminal organizations pag. 17 Example #2: italian minors and mafia in South Italy pag. 19 References pag. 24 Chapter 2. Organised crime and legal framework on juvenile justice in Albania Introduction: the issue pag. 25 Brief description of organised crime and relevant legislation in Albany pag. 26 Albanian criminal law pag. 28 Some statistics on organised crime related offences in Albania pag. 31 General legal framework of juvenile justice pag. 32 Offences committed by juveniles and their trends pag. 34 Initiatives for the future pag. 36 Conclusion pag. 37 References pag. 38 Annex #1: Table of offences committed by minors pag.40 Chapter 3. The role of children and juveniles in organised crime in Germany Introduction pag. 42 The notion “Organised Crime” pag. 43 The German Youth Penal Law pag. 44 The structure of Germany as a Federal Republic as an obstacle for the battle on organiseed crime pag. 44 Children and juveniles in crime organisations pag. 46 Unaccompanied minors in Germany pag. 47 Romanian theft children pag. 49 Chapter 4. Juvenile affiliation in organised crime in Spain What is organised crime? pag. 50 Minors and crime organisations pag. 51 Organised crime in Spain pag. 52 History of the Spanish legislation pag. 54 The impact of immigration in Spain pag. 57 Statistics pag. 59 Conclusion pag. 64 References pag. 65 - 3 - Chapter 5. Juvenile delinquency: a reality of the Romanian society The legislative frame pag. 67 Delinquency: an increasing phenomenon pag. 68 Involved organisations pag. 69 The organisations working instruments pag. 70 The juvenile court law. An innovation in the Romanian criminal system pag. 72 Conclusion pag. 74 Chapter 6. Minors involved in organized crime Colombia Organized crime in Colombia pag. 75 Types of organized crime offences in Colombia pag. 77 How minors become involved in organized crime pag. 79 Incorporation and recruiting: Forced or Voluntary? pag. 82 Activities and operations: “Captured or Lawbreakers” pag. 85 Institutional responses pag. 87 Future perspectives: imputability or guaranty or rights? pag. 89 Conclusion and suggestions pag. 90 - 4 - Acknowledgements Don Calabria Institute, the promoting agency for this project would like to thank all the partners for their deep collaboration, support and local assistance. We would like to thank European Commision-Directorate of General Justice and Home affairs for collaboration and for its encouragement and support throughout the research. A special thank to the important collaboration and support of the Italian Department of Juvenile Justice of the Ministry of Justice, in particular to the Director, dr.Rosario Priore and all the research staff involved in the project. We would also thank the Training School for the Ministery Personell of Messina for their warm hospitality and Raffaele Bracalenti (president of IPRS), Alessandro Padovani, Silvio Masin and Silvio Ciappi (Don Calabria Institute), Annelies Wiesner and Silke Volkhardt (CJD, Eutin Germany), Ilir Bicja (IPLS, Albany), Georghe Ion Ciciu (Fundatja S.Ioan Calabria, Romania), Yolanda Mahon and Estela Vela (GID, Spain), Pierluca Ghibelli (Diesis, Belgium). We would also like to thank a wide range of individuals who at different levels provide collaboration during the project. A final thanks to the Università Externado de Colombia and the Pontificia Università Javeriana of Bogotà (Colombia) for their important support at the final meeting held in Messina. - 5 - Introduction by Alessandro Padovani Mafia Minors, an expression that provokes reaction and curiosity for the impression of incompatibility of the two shown terms: from here the project was born, financed by the Program AGIS 2004 of the European union, from the desire to understand as these two words meet in the experience of organizations that work within the juvenile criminal justice in various Countries. A background verification has allowed the initial construction of the planning idea: more and more many minors and young people have involved, used in the circuits of the organized crime and in the mafias of the various Countries, as “operators” with full rights in illegitimate activity that asks for answers of contrast, guardianship and protection. Each Project is delineated and articulates in a team of job, in objective, activity and products that allow to organize a job of search, analysis and of cooperation. The team of job has involved various organizations and professionals of some European Countries and extra-european: in Italy the “Istituto Don Calabria”, applicant of the Project, the “Scuola di Formazione del Personale per i Minorenni di Messina – Dipartimento per la Giustizia Minorile del Ministero della Giustizia”, the “Istituto Psicoanalitico di Ricerca Sociale (IPRS)” di Roma, the “Associazione Apriti Cuore di Palermo”, the “ Istituto per il Rinascimento Siciliano di Palermo”, the “Settore Servizi Sociali del Comune di Verona”, the “Christlichen Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands (CJD)” – Eutin , in Germany; ; in Spain, the “Grupo Inter Disciplinar (GID)” in Madrid; “Fundatja S. Ioan Calabria” of Racaciuni in Rumania; the “Institute for Policy and Legal Studies” of Tirana, Albania; the “Pontificia Università Javeriana” of Bogotà, Colombia. Objectives: the first one consists in the realization of a general photo of the phenomenon of the involvement of the teen-agers in the mafias and in the organized crime: in the mafia of the south Italy, in the organizations that manage the clandestine immigration of the not accompanied young persons, like Rumanian, Albanian, Moroccan, Slavic in the regions of the north; the matter of the Russian outsiderses inserted in the criminal activities in Germany; the use of the autochtonous minors and foreigners in the criminal activities connected to the commerce of the drug in Spain and in Colombia; the manners of involvement in the illegitimate activities in Romania and Albania, point of transit for many minors destined to criminal careers in Europe. The second objective, that more meaningful, consists in the constitution and activation of a first net of collaborations and exchanges between organizations and professionals, necessary net for an operational reference for the search to level of the single Countries and for further developments in activity of European cooperation. The job of analysis and comparison has allowed besides the production of single reports spread to national level and the publication of the present conclusive dossier. A hope is alive at the end of the Project: to have worked for developing greater awareness of the specific phenomenon and to offer a contribution that the various initiatives of search sustain of guardianship and of the young persons' protection involved in the mafias in the European Countries. This final Report was arranged by the Project manager Dr Alessandro Padovani and by the Project Coordinator Dr Silvio Masin. - 6 - Chapter 1 Mafia, minors and law enforcement in Italy Silvio Ciappi and Raffaele Bracalenti Introduction The Italians call them 'baby killers' - not because they kill babies, but because they are trained to kill while they are still legally minors, and therefore cannot be punished as adults. Seventeen year old Vincenzo Trubia from Gela - a Mafia-dominated town in the Southeast corner of Sicily - has admitted to Police that he is a trained Mafia hitman. He has been carrying a gun since his uncle gave him one for his eleventh birthday, he told prosecutors. Vincenzo is now under police protection somewhere in Italy, one of more than 4,000 former Mafia criminals who are taking part in a huge government-run witness protection programme. Giovanni Tinebra, chief prosecutor at Caltanisetta in central Sicily, raised the alarm when he gave details of the 'school' near Gela for teenage killers. Pupils at the 'school', he said, are taught to shoot, strip down pistols, and become expert moped and scooter riders to enable them to take part in hit and run attacks on designated individuals. "At 11 or 12 they are taken into the countryside to learn to shoot. They are given a mission to kill - which they are unfortunately able to carry out with great skill. The 'school' run by the Mafia is an alternative to ordinary compulsory schooling for many Sicilian children." Vincenzo became one of Italy's youngest official turncoats during police investigations into a series of Mafia murders in Gela last July. Four people were shot dead - the latest in a series of family vendetta killings that have been going on for years. Vincenzo was employed as a lookout, he did not actually take part in these killings, but he was part of the scene and got scared. The use of child killers by the mafia is not new. What has shocked Italian public opinion is the extent of the phenomenon, and the brazen attitudes of Mafia bosses towards the exploitation of children as accomplices to adults in crime, as confirmed by law enforcement officers. Caterina Chinnici is in charge of the office for the prosecution of minors in Caltanisetta. "If someone kills his father in Verona or a wealthy jeweller in Milan (in Northern Italy) the Italian State mobilises," she says. "If the baby-killers shoot in Gela, as they have been doing for 10 years now, nothing happens." "There are only three specialist social workers dealing with child criminals in Gela, they are competent and scrupulous, but too thin on the ground," she added.