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Drug market in Sardinia: criminal roles and networks

Sat, September 9, 9:30 to 10:45am, Educatorio Fuligno, Floor: first floor / cloister entrance, Fuligno 7

Abstract

For over a decade, there has been a progressive consolidation of mafia-type organized crime connected to narcotrafficking in Sardinia (DNA 2017). On the one hand, the illegal production and trafficking of drugs is combining with other violent crime types, such as robberies, extortions, attacks and arms trafficking, which have long been rooted in Sardinia (Mazzette 2006, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019; Mazzette and Pulino 2016; Mazzette and Spanu 2015). On the other hand, several legal judgments are bringing to light the existence of small and weakly articulated structures, as well as more locally-rooted organizations with precise hierarchies with regards to activities, actors involved and roles performed.
This paper examines the latter organizational typology, following the results of a study* conducted by the Osservatorio Sociale sullo Sviluppo e sulla Criminalità in Sardegna (OSCRIM, Social Observatory on Development and Crime in Sardinia) of the University of Sassari on the legal judgments issued by the Court of Cagliari between 2014 and 2018 concerning national and international drug trafficking events that dates back, in some cases, to the end of the 1990s.
This paper will be divided into two parts: 1. a general outline of the examined phenomenon, with particular attention to the authors; 2. a detailed framework of the criminal networks, movements and discrepant roles (Goffman, 1956) of drug trafficking actors, with the aim of highlighting how the intertwining of new forms of organized crime and historical peculiarities of local criminality - on which there is a vast literature, starting with Antonio Pigliaru's work on La vendetta barbaricina come ordinamento giuridico (1959) - is taking root in Sardinia.
* Mazzette A. (2021, ed.), Droghe e organizzazioni criminali in Sardegna. Letture sociologiche ed economiche, Franco Angeli, Milano

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