Ndrangheta trial in Bellinzona: Aargau businessman accused as Swiss representative of calabrian clan
A 59-year-old Italian is standing trial at the federal criminal court in Bellinzona, who according to the charges acted for two decades as Swiss representative of the calabrian Anello-Fruci clan.
Ndrangheta network in Switzerland: trial reveals criminal structures in Aargau and Zurich
On 16 February 2020, Mario Polli (name changed) drove his Dodge Ram with Aargau number plates from the canton of Aargau to the canton of Zurich – and complained bitterly about a close confidant. The other man could not keep his mouth shut, Polli said. He told all sorts of people about the "mangiata", the secret mafia meeting over wine and bread at clan boss Rocco Anello's, which both of them had attended. What Polli did not know: Swiss and Italian investigators were listening in.
Six years later, the now 59-year-old Italian sits with folded arms in the courtroom of the federal criminal court in Bellinzona. Two defence lawyers assert his innocence. According to the NZZ, it is the largest mafia trial in Switzerland for some time.
Membership in criminal association and weapons trafficking
The charges brought by the Swiss federal prosecutor's office are comprehensive: Polli is accused of membership in a criminal association, receiving stolen goods, and involvement in drug and weapons trafficking. He is said to have worked for the calabrian 'Ndrangheta for almost twenty years and to have risen to become the Swiss representative of the powerful Anello-Fruci clan. The eight-day trial provides insight into a secretive world in which secret messages are transmitted orally at weddings and weapon arsenals are hoarded in pizzerias.
According to investigators, the trial also dispels a widespread myth: that Italian organised crime uses Switzerland only as a place of refuge, not as an operational base.
Wire-tap recordings as central evidence
The charges are based on a series of audio recordings from the suspect's Dodge Ram. In another recording, shortly after his tirade about the "big-mouth", Polli boasted shamelessly: he had smuggled drugs by the kilogram, clan boss Rocco Anello had promised him millions. Anello was "more than a brother" to him.
In the same recordings, Polli acts like a clichéd mafioso. He said in one recording that he would slash a victim's face and hands if they did not pay. He said he wanted to slaughter another man "like a pig", split him with an axe and burn him alive. He threatened another man with a gunshot to the head, dismemberment or dissolving in acid – and swore by his mother while doing so. He did not say all this in southern Italy, but on car journeys between places such as Knonau, Mettmenstetten, Muri and Niedergösgen.
In one recording, Polli referred to the Seebach district in Zurich as the "crimine di Zurigo" – a place where various mafia families operate. "Drug trafficking… weapons… they're all there in Seebach, those bastards!", according to the indictment, is to be heard on the recordings.
Cocaine, counterfeit money and stolen weapons
The specific charges brought by the federal prosecutor's office range from trafficking in several kilograms of cocaine to the sale of partly stolen weapons to an attempt to smuggle a quarter of a million euros in counterfeit money into Switzerland. There are also notable cash movements: in total, Polli is said to have withdrawn 1.3 million francs in Switzerland between 2001 and 2020 and transferred it to Italy.
In June 2016, Italian authorities found 12,000 euros in cash on him during a search at Calabria airport, as well as 8,000 euros on his travelling companion – the man with the "big mouth". Several notes came from a currency exchange transaction that an undercover investigator had previously carried out with the companion.
Polli is said to have also invested the criminally earned money in legal activities, including construction projects and nightclubs in Bülach, Winterthur and Schaffhausen.
Close contact with clan boss Rocco Anello
According to the charges, Polli was more than merely a henchman. At the secret "mangiata" in the summer of 2019 in the small town of Gianbarella, he was allowed to sit directly next to clan boss Rocco Anello – a circumstance he later boasted about. Polli is said to have also procured Swiss mobile phones for Anello for discreet communication. Furthermore, he is said to have offered Anello the opportunity to obtain a residence permit through a sham employment arrangement and to arrange investments in the restaurant sector.
According to the charges, Anello was a regular guest in Switzerland. On at least one occasion he stayed with the suspect, on another occasion Polli chauffeured him. In Dietlikon, the two of them visited a drug dealer together, in Zug another one. According to the indictment, those involved used a series of creative code words for drugs: there was talk of juicy cherries and good chocolate when it came to goods for a friend.
Accused denies all charges
Polli, a heavyset man in a blue t-shirt, horn-rimmed glasses and tattooed stars on his forearm, sits in the courtroom with utter indifference. When confronted with the charges, he remains persistently evasive. "I know nothing" is his line – presented through two defence lawyers, who both assert his innocence.
Investigators from Switzerland and Italy had pursued the 'Ndrangheta network for years. According to the charges, the network was involved in weapons trafficking, drug dealing and extortion rackets. For years, the authorities attempted to penetrate the inner circle. The crucial breakthrough came from none other than the companion with the "big mouth" – the man whom Polli had complained about in the Dodge Ram on that February day in 2020.
Source: NZZ