He has just arrived in Naples when he no longer has enough cells for the 41 bis. Nicola Gratteri, the terror of the 'Ndrangheta, has been putting the Camorra under attack for a few months. From Reggio Calabria to the Neapolitan capital, for what he considers a war against the mafias without borders, from the land of fires to the outskirts of Caracas. They say everything and more about him: abrupt ways, impetuousness, braggadocio and above all the terror of politics. He says what he thinks, he doesn't like savoir faire , and when he speaks he makes noise. His landing at the Neapolitan Prosecutor's Office did not come through grace received, but rather through merits achieved in the field: international drug trafficking gangs, white collar workers and strategic gangs in the public administration were defeated. He chased them, arrested them and very often had them convicted. Now, however, at the beginning of his new mandate, he has a problem as big as a prison: he doesn't know where to put "the 41 bis", those mafia leaders to be isolated without respite, to try to make them helpless in maximum security cells.
Take Gratteri
When the agencies beat Gratteri's take in Sardinia there is half of parliament, all cheering for their favorite. A bolt from the blue, apparently. We know, when the sworn enemy of the mafia godfathers speaks, it means that something is about to happen. More than an appeal, his is a denunciation, public and in no uncertain terms: "In Cagliari they built a prison for the 41 bis, but the section cannot open". And he also indicates the solution to no longer leave him closed: "We need more prison police officers." The Prosecutor of Naples does not speak by chance: «For twenty years I have heard that it takes seven years to build a prison. Only two prisons were built for 41 bis: Sassari and Cagliari, where in the latter the section cannot be opened." He obviously knows the Sardinian practice: «Unfortunately, with few prison police officers, the high security regime cannot be effectively applied». Nicola Gratteri knows everything, including the cursus honorum of those cells for mafia leaders.
