The 'ndrangheta and Camorra mafia groups in southern Italy are dealing in antiquities looted by Isil in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The Italian mafia groups are reportedly handing over to Isil weapons smuggled out of Moldova and Ukraine by Russian criminal groups in exchange for Roman and Greek artefacts illegally excavated from ancient sites including Leptis Magna, Cyrene and Sabratha in Libya—all Unesco World Heritage Sites. The objects are shipped from the former Isil stronghold of Sirte to Gioia Tauro in Calabria, a major port used by the 'ndrangheta to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
Domenico Quirico, a La Stampa journalist, posed as an antiquities collector to infiltrate the 'ndrangheta-controlled trade near Naples. He was offered the head of a purportedly Roman statue from the second century for €60,000 and saw photographs of a figure of a Greek god on sale for €1m. The traffickers were also selling objects looted from necropolises in Italy, Quirico writes. Their clients are based in Russia, China, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.
In an interview with the Italian news agency Ansa, Angelino Alfano, Italy’s interior minister, said: "The criminal turnover of the so-called Islamic state comes from a series of factors, including the sale of works of art that have escaped the iconoclastic fury of the militants."
However, Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told The Art Newspaper in August that around 70% of the artefacts seized in anti-smuggling operations in Syria and neighbouring Lebanon this year have proved to be fakes.
