The Mazzarella clan is a Campanian
clan operating in the city of
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
. The clan is historically considered one of the most powerful groups of the Camorra.
History
The clan was founded in the 1960s by the Mazzarella brothers, Ciro known as o Scellone'', Gennaro and Vincenzo, as a branch of the Zaza clan, then headed by the historical boss
Michele Zaza, who was a relative of the Mazzarella brothers. The organization started dedicating itself to the
cigarette smuggling, establishing itself from the
Borgo Santa Lucia to
Posillipo
Posillipo (; ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples.
From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Romans along the mo ...
, and from
Bagnoli
Bagnoli is a western seaside quarter of Naples, Italy, well beyond the confines of the original city. It is beyond Cape Posillipo and, thus, looking on the coast of the Bay of Pozzuoli.
Industrialization and World War II
Bagnoli was on ...
to
Pozzuoli. The Mazzarella clan grew rapidly and became independent from the Zazas, thanks to
Ciro Mazzarella, who since the 1960s demonstrated his entrepreneurial abilities, buying small ships and starting his own smuggling empire.
In the 1970s, the organization was already dubbed by the media as the kings of cigarette smuggling, however, during the eighties and nineties the organization ended up involved in many Camorra wars, in particular against the
Contini clan, which led to the death of dozens of affiliates including the father of the Mazzarella brothers, Francesco, killed in an ambush in 1998, with an increase in February of the same year which led to ten deaths in nine days.
In the late 1980s the Mazzarellas formed a strong alliance with the Misso and Sarno clans, called Misso-Mazzarella-Sarno, to oppose to the rising power of the
Secondigliano Alliance, headed by the
Licciardi,
Mallardo and
Contini bosses. However, in 2008, this alliance was broken after the fall of the Sarno clan, bringing the eastern suburbs of Naples to a new and bloody war.
In 1996 Marianna, daughter of
Luigi Giuliano, boss of the
Giuliano clan, married Michele Mazzarella, son of Vincenzo Mazzarella, the union served to strengthen the relations between the two most important clans of Camorra in the 1990s.
The clan has a long history of rivalry with the
Rinaldi clan, which caused dozens of deaths from the bloody wars between the two groups.
According to revelations made by pentitos of the clan, despite the degree of kinship among the founders of the organization, the Mazzarellas are not united as it seems, actually, each brother has an area of their own influence inside the several territories dominated by the clan. The clan is virtually fragmented into three independent groups.
Ciro Mazzarella
Born in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
on April 2, 1940,
Ciro Mazzarella aka 'o Scellone, was considered the true heir of Michele Zaza, having strong relations with the
Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...
, in particular with the
Catania Mafia family. According to justice collaborators, the late boss of the Catania Mafia,
Giuseppe Calderone was the godparent in the baptism of one of the Mazzarella's sons.
'O Scellone had also good relationships with other powerful bosses of the Camorra, such as
Mario Fabbrocino and Alfredo Maisto. He was also seen in the company of
Vincenzo Casillo of the
Nuova Camorra Organizzata, in fact, Mazzarella never took a side in the war between the
Nuova Famiglia and the NCO, despite the top position Michele Zaza held inside the NF.
In the early 1990s Mazzarella had amassed great wealth, in 1992 he decided to move to
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, after losing a war between Camorra clans in Naples. From his logistics base in
Lugano
Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...
, he created an enviable economic Empire with cigarette smuggling that arrived from
Montenegro
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, coa_size = 80
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, national_anthem = ()
, image_map = Europe-Mont ...
. According to the parliamentary inquiry commission of 1996, Ciro Mazzarella headed a true illegal Empire: 200 billion lire in turnover, for a net profit of over 6 billion lire monthly (€4,4 million monthly, in today's exchange).
In 2002 he was arrested in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, and after his release from prison in 2006, he returned to live in Naples.
On September 2, 2018, Ciro Mazzarella, died in his villa in the affluent neighbourhood of
Posillipo
Posillipo (; ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples.
From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Romans along the mo ...
, Naples at the age of 78.
Historical leaderships
*
Ciro Mazzarella known as ''
'o Scellone'' (Naples, April 2, 1940 - Naples, September 2, 2018)
* Gennaro Mazzarella known as ''
'o Schizzo'' (Naples, September 25, 1949)
* Vincenzo Mazzarella known as ‘''o Pazzo'' (Naples, May 8, 1956 - Milan, November 5, 2018)
* Ciro Mazzarella (Naples, May 3, 1971)
Activities
Since the 20th century, the clan is known to be also active in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. In 2004 Vincenzo Mazzarella, one of the founders of the organization, was arrested in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. Mazzarella was reportedly dealing diamonds with African criminals in the country.
In 2009, Ciro Mazzarella, born in 1971, was arrested in
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
,
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
. In the country, he lived in a luxurious residence and held the reins of the clan especially for the management of drug trafficking.
According to the Spanish police, in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
the clan is active in
Marbella,
Fuengirola,
Zaragoza
Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...
and
Ceuta
Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...
.
Operating from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Salvatore Zazo, one of the top members of the clan, was allegedly involved in a large scheme of international cocaine trafficking from
Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
to
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, with the intention to acquire total control of the Port of
Callao; one of his contacts was the
drug lord Gerald Oropeza, one of the biggest traffickers in Peru. According to the
DEA, Zazo would manage more than U$500 million per year in shipments of cocaine through the ports of the country to Europe.
According to the
Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, the clan has alliances with
Albanian mafia groups.
In recent years, the new leaders of the
Russo clan, from
Nola, also formed an alliance with the Mazzarellas.
Present day
According to the reports of the DIA about the Camorra in 2019, the Mazzarella clan, despite the death of two of its founders, is still one of the most powerful organizations in
Campania
Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...
, dominating the territory in various neighbourhoods, and having numerous groups under their influence.
The current leader of the organization is Ciro Mazzarella, born in 1971, who controls the powerful organization from his stronghold in the
Mercato area, in Naples.
See also
*
*
List of members of the Camorra
*
Michele Zaza
*
List of Camorra clans
This is a comprehensive list of Camorra clans and their place of origin. A clan is a basic unit in the Camorra, a criminal organization originating in Campania. Currently it is estimated there are about 111 Camorra clans, and about 7,000 full membe ...
*
Contini clan
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mazzarella Clan
1960s establishments in Italy
Camorra clans
Organized crime groups in France
Organized crime groups in Peru
Organised crime groups in Spain