(Bloomberg) -- Italy has been at the forefront of European nations that have seen a surge in immigration from the Middle East and Africa. As more people arrive fleeing war, government oppression and poverty, a climate of fear has been stoked by the Italian far-right. With sometimes breathless allegations of organized crime, the government has sought to crack down on new arrivals, a strategy that’s included a dogged pursuit of what Italy calls a “Nigerian mafia.”
For years, Italian law enforcement and media outlets have described this supposed group as the next Cosa Nostra. But there was no publicly known evidence to back up the claims until the “Green Bible” appeared. The document, allegedly discovered by police with the help of an informant, has become the single-most important document in Italy’s war on an alleged Nigerian crime syndicate. In Italy’s Hunt for a Mysterious Nigerian Mafia, Bloomberg Investigates reveals both how the “Green Bible” is not what it claims to be, and how the Italian government nevertheless continues to use it to put Nigerian immigrants in prison.
The far-right Brothers of Italy Party and Giorgia Meloni, now Italy’s prime minister, rose to power in part on fervent pledges to slash immigration. What links many of the Nigerians targeted by the government is something called a confraternity, Nigeria’s equivalent of US college fraternities. First created in the 1950s, some devolved over the decades into vehicles for political violence. These days, some are still known for violent initiation practices and gang warfare, but others form important alumni networks for Nigerian immigrant communities.
In Italy, where the population of roughly 60 million includes about 5 million foreigners, 2% of whom are Nigerian, the view of confraternities has been less nuanced. Officials have frequently portrayed these groups using racist dog whistles and fantastical allegations. (The head of the nation’s anti-mafia directorate once testified that alleged Nigerian mobs used “magic rituals” to control their victims.) In Italy’s Hunt for a Mysterious Nigerian Mafia, Bloomberg Investigates explores why Italian law enforcement has placed so much weight on the “Green Bible,” and the lives that have been damaged and destroyed as a result.
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