Original subtitles

(bell clangs)

CONTINUITY ANNOUNCER: We now go over to London

for the latest national and international news.

REPORTER: Police made a bizarre discovery.

Hanging under Blackfriars Bridge was the body of a man.

The body was hanging from scaffolding

underneath the bridge in London.

ROSS KEMP: On the 18th of June 1982,

a corpse was found under this bridge in central London.

(bell clangs)

REPORTER: He'd been dead between two and six hours.

(bell)

- Five bricks were found in his clothes...

..plus £7,300 in assorted currency.

KEMP: Details made the death suspicious.

REPORTER: The injuries suggest that he'd been killed

some time earlier... his body brought here...

..and left hanging to fool the authorities.

REPORTER: There is now growing suspicion...

..that he was murdered.

(bell)

KEMP: The body was identified... as Roberto Calvi.

REPORTER: The head of a large, private Italian bank.

He was known as ‘God's Banker.'

REPORTER: Signor Calvi's widow and son

maintain that he was murdered

in a plot which implicates the Italian Mafia.

(bell)

REPORTER: It involved the Mafia.

REPORTER: ..the Mafia. (bell)

- It was almost... the perfect murder.

- Up until the death of Roberto Calvi, it was assumed

that the Mafia had no business here. But with his murder,

it seemed that they were here... and able to operate with impunity.

So just how far did the Mafia's tentacles extend throughout Britain?

I'm on a journey to find out.

(grave music)

KEMP: The Mafia is one of the oldest organised crime groups

in the world, dating back to the 19th century in rural Italy.

Over two centuries, its influence has spread across the globe.

- The rackets have become too widespread,

too well-organised, and too rich.

KEMP: Smuggling, protection rackets,

robbery, drugs and murder.

- This is the eighth Camorra killing in Naples

in six days.

KEMP: Bound by rules and rituals,

and led by charismatic characters,

the Mafia has inspired countless books,

movies and television series.

But are they operating in the UK?

And could they have killed, in plain sight, in central London?

- Nice to meet you. KEMP: Peter Bleksley

was a Metropolitan Police detective in 1982.

- Peter, can you remember the morning

that Roberto Calvi's body was found hanging underneath this bridge?

- As if it was yesterday.

For a slightly overweight, not very physically able

62-year-old man to clamber over a bridge,

navigate some pretty complex and dangerous scaffolding,

almost like an acrobat, to then tie a rope to it,

the other end around his neck, weigh himself down with bricks

and jump into the River Thames... what?

- So you think murder first? - Yeah.

- Anything else on the body?

- About $14,000 in mixed currency,

lira and Swiss francs and suchlike.

He had a false passport on him.

Roberto Calvi had been chairman of a bank,

and in that bank had been a lot of money

belonging to the Vatican. That's why Calvi was known as ‘God's Banker.'

And there were some other people had a very keen interest in him.

- What other people? - The Mafia.

Roberto Calvi was part of a masonic brotherhood called P2,

who were linked to the Mafia, otherwise known as the Black Friars.

And the location, Blackfriars Bridge.

- There was some symbolism to what had happened here?

- Yes. If you're going to kill someone,

and you're going to send out messages, this killing had plenty.

- This is all adding up to an example killing.

It's in a very, very public place. - In London.

The Mafia were clearly saying,

"You can never rest easy, you can never sleep soundly.

Because wherever you go, we'll find you."

KEMP: The murder of God's Banker under Blackfriars Bridge

is still officially unsolved.

If the Mafia did kill him, who carried out the hit, and why?

Thank you.

Professor John Dickie has tried to unravel the case.

So John, why would the Mafia want Calvi out of the way?

- Well, Calvi was already deep, deep in trouble.

His bank was spiralling,

he'd been prosecuted for various banking offences,

and he's becoming more and more desperate for money

to plug the holes in his empire.

And it's at this point, we think he gets in touch

with the Sicilian Mafia, and that this is where

things really start to get dangerous.

- Because Calvi starts to lose Mafia money?

- He starts to lose Mafia money.

- Very, very good reasons

for getting rid of him. - Absolutely.

- So what is he doing in London?

- It may well be that he was looking around

for more money to try and save his banks,

using his contacts in the City.

KEMP: Calvi thought London was a safe place to go,

but John's research has uncovered dangerous Mafia operatives

who were in Britain at the time.

- There was a guy called Francesco Di Carlo in London,

who was a member of the Sicilian Mafia.

‘Frankie The Strangler',

they called him. - So Di Carlo is suspected

of being the murderer? - Yeah. But he says:

"Actually, they did ask me to do it.

But by the time I got back in touch with them, they said,

'Actually, we've already sorted it out.

We've given it to members of the Neapolitan Mafia to do.'"

- Right. - The Neapolitans that Di Carlo says

did it, one of them dies six months or so later

in a car bomb in Rome.

- Yeah.

- And then the other one, Sergio Vaccari,

gets stabbed to death in London.

He's stabbed in the mouth,

which some people speculate is some kind of Mafia signal

for keeping your mouth... - Shut.

And bricks are found on his body.

- Bricks? - Rather in the same style as Calvi.

- So John, potentially

Calvi and the man that was suspected of murdering him

were both killed here on British soil?

- Yeah. For me, that's the most likely explanation.

KEMP: No-one was ever brought to justice

for these vicious murders.

Whoever killed Calvi successfully covered their tracks.

So was the murder of God's Banker a one-off,

or were there other active Mafia cells operating in the UK?

I start looking for more evidence.

There are very few news articles that refer to the Mafia in the UK

over the last 50 years.

But one report from 2007 catches my eye.

- He's wanted by Italian police in connection with four murders.

But after a year on the run,

officers have finally caught up with Gennaro Panzuto.

He wasn't found in Palermo, but near Preston.

KEMP: Preston is a world away from a Mob war in Naples.

This seems too far-fetched to be true,

so I've headed north to find out more.

- Hello there. Ross. Pleased to meet you.

In 2006, Mick Bury was living in a caravan park

when a new neighbour arrived.

His name was Gennaro Panzuto.

- Coming in? - Yeah, love to.

How did you first meet Gennaro Panzuto?

- What happened was, the kids come knocking on my door:

"See, Mick? See, Mick? The Italian guy's

just reversed into your car." I went, "Y'what?"

So I come blazing over, banging on t'door:

"Can't y'see?" - "What've you done to my car?"

He give me two hundred quid.

A bit extra? - A bit extra, yeah. I thought:

"Oh, this is alright."

He said, "Don't go talking about it."

- Didn't want the police involved? - No, definitely.

- You've got pictures of him. - Yeah.

- Good-looking lad, ain't he? - Very smart, very smart.

- He must have stood out? - Well, he did.

I mean, he was an Italian, smooth, charmed,

with a bit of swagger.

- Not the guy you'd normally find in this location.

- Exactly, exactly.

But he mixed with everybody. - He was very friendly?

- Yeah, very. Used to buy a round, a pub round of drinks.

Then he'd have barbecues. It was good, everybody liked him.

KEMP: Panzuto only stayed at the caravan park a few months.

He soon upgraded to a three-bedroom house

on the outskirts of Preston.

So this is the house? - Yeah, this is the house.

- Ever see anybody else come and go?

- Yeah, quite a few people flying over. Italian.

- So flying over from Italy? - Yeah.

- The most unlikely of locations, I would suggest.

Mick and Gennaro remained friends,

until one day in May 2007.

- Everything kicked off.

- Police, coming upstairs!

- Armed police? - Yeah, and said,

"Is there any guns in the house?"

KEMP: Mick learned the reason for the raid from news reports.

- The Italian authorities say they're more used to tracing

their Mafia suspects t o the South of France or Spain

than to semi-detached houses in Lancashire.

- It seemed surreal. - It was so unlikely.

- It was so unlikely. It was just ... Couldn't make it up,

you just couldn't.

KEMP: Lancashire seems like a peculiar choice

for a Mafia mobster.

So why did he go there?

One of Britain's foremost authorities on the Mafia,

Professor Felia Allum, has tracked the case.

Felia, Preston is not the place that automatically comes to mind

when you mention the word ‘Mafia.' - No, and that's the point:

they're invisible there. We've got somebody

who's come to the UK, who's wanted for Mafia association in Italy.

- But that is just a specific crime of association, or being a member,

not an actual crime, which could be murder, drug...

- No, but in Italy, it is a crime. But the British authorities

don't have the same lengths, don't have that crime to look for.

So in the UK, you can hide quite easily.

- Hiding in plain sight. - Exactly.

KEMP: So who was Panzuto on the run from?

- There are various Mafias linked to different regions.

- In Italy? - In Italy.

Gennaro was part of the Camorra, up in Naples.

- What are they? - It's urban, based in the city.

They're clans, they're families that come together to intimidate,

to impose extortion, or to silence people.

KEMP: But was Gennaro Panzuto just hiding here,

or was he also conducting Mafia business in Britain?

- Once they're here, they're likely to be involved in things

which are illegal, it's all they know.

- They've grown up in that environment, it's what they do.

Where is he now? - I think he's now in Italy,

and I think he has done his time and has come out of protection.

KEMP: To get the full story, I need to speak to Panzuto myself.

I asked Felia to use her connections in Italy

to try and get a number for him.

And I managed to make contact.

I'm in Italy.

Gennaro Panzuto has agreed to talk to me.

KEMP: I'm investigating Britain's links to the Mafia.

For years, it has been assumed the UK had little connection

with the infamous Italian crime group.

But in 2007, a Mafia associate by the name of Gennaro Panzuto

was found living in Lancashire.

I've come to Naples to meet him.

This area is called La Torretta. It means ‘little tower'.

This is the area where Gennaro Panzuto grew up.

Naples is the birthplace of the Camorra,

a violent urban branch of the Mafia

divided into clans that control specific areas of the city.

Each clan has a boss and hundreds of soldiers.

Before we meet, Panzuto has warned me

that some clans in the city still want him dead.

Gennaro? - Hey.

- Ross Kemp. - Gennaro Panzuto.

KEMP: So we are meeting at a secret location.

Do I sit? Grazie.

Panzuto starts by telling me how he first came into contact

with the Camorra.

Gennaro was soon recruited by a Camorra clan

and sent to work for his new boss.

You personally went after the soldiers

of the boss of the other clan? - Yeah.

Gennaro used violence to rise quickly through the ranks.

But Naples was about to descend into chaos.

In the early 2000s, fighting broke out

between two of the largest Camorra clans

for control of drugs in the city.

It was one of the bloodiest conflicts in Naples' history.

Hundreds of people were killed.

(sirens wail)

- Hundreds of extra police have been sent to Naples.

REPORTER: There's more police per person

than any other city in Europe.

- Why do you choose to go to the United Kingdom?

So you've met these guys in the port. They're criminals.

- Sì.

- You've agreed to go to Britain. Where do you fly to?

- A Preston. - What did you think of Preston

when you got there?

Not looking over your shoulder,

waiting for somebody to come for you with a gun, right?

- Yeah, exactly.

In England, my life is normal.

KEMP: In Preston, Gennaro started to work on fraud scams

with his British criminal contacts.

What did you have to do?

From his hiding place in Preston,

Gennaro carried on playing a key role

in the Camorra fighting that raged on in Naples.

You're able to travel back and forth?

You're killing people when you come here?

Can you remember how many lives you've taken?

With the bodies mounting up in Naples,

the clan bosses needed somewhere away from police scrutiny

to meet and negotiate.

Guys from Naples, Camorra associates,

came across to England?

So according to Gennaro,

the gathering of Italians at the house in Preston

Mick Bury told me about was actually a peace summit

for Mafia bosses.

Gennaro claims his Lancashire summit worked,

and the clans came to an uneasy truce.

But his time on the run was coming to an end.

In May 2007, Italian authorities finally tracked him down

to Lancashire... and extradited him back to Italy,

where he was convicted of crimes including murder, drug trafficking

and Mafia association.

You're now facing multiple life sentences. What do you decide to do?

After fourteen years inside, Gennaro decided to give evidence

against the Camorra in exchange for his freedom.

The terminology, I believe, is a 'pentito?'

Are you not in fear of your life every second of the day?

For over a year, Gennaro Panzuto travelled

from the UK to Italy, committing murder.

He even arranged a Mafia summit here.

Preston was the perfect place to hide out,

because no-one suspected it and nobody was looking.

But has Britain ever been more than just a hiding place for the Mafia?

Have they ever had a fully operational cell in the UK?

I comb old news articles,

looking for evidence of something bigger,

and I think I find it... this time in Scotland.

Aberdeen is probably the last place, you'd think,

that would be home to a Mafia organisation.

REPORTER: An Aberdeen businessman is accused

of being the godfather of a Mafia crime gang

and a catalogue of crimes, including racketeering,

extortion and violence.

KEMP: I'm on a mission to investigate

Britain's links with the Mafia.

So far I've uncovered a hitman and a murder.

Now I'm on the trail of something potentially much bigger,

in the northeast of Scotland...

..a story that takes us back over 30 years.

In the 1980s, natural resources from the North Sea

were coming ashore in northeast Scotland.

The City of Aberdeen was the oil capital of Europe,

home to cash-rich executives eager to splash out on luxury meals.

So it wasn't a surprise

when a high-end Italian restaurant opened up in the early '90s.

So Norman, this was it, yeah?

- This was it: Pavarotti's.

- "A real taste of Italy.' - In more ways than one.

KEMP: At the time, Norman Silvester was investigating criminal activity

in the city.

- Pavarotti's was owned by a man called Antonio La Torre...

..who had come from Mondragone in southern Italy.

- Outside Naples? - Outside Naples.

- What was he like? - Very personable, well-spoken.

Very much the ideal host.

But by the early 1990s, my contacts were telling me about this chap,

that there was more to him than met the eye. His family

were a Mafia clan in southern Italy involved in extortion

and intimidation. They ran protection rackets,

they were involved in drug-dealing, counterfeit money, robbery,

all manner of crimes, generating large sums for the family.

KEMP: Norman decided to investigate La Torre's life in Aberdeen.

This is where La Torre lived? - Yes.

- Above a butcher's? - Living above a butcher's shop.

Discreet, off the main street.

No luxury lifestyle. Just a normal, everyday family home.

- He is very, very normal, apart from one thing.

- He's a member of one of the biggest crime families in Italy.

KEMP: Over the next few years, La Torre expanded his business

and opened a second restaurant in Aberdeen.

In the 1980s and '90s, the quantity of drugs coming into Scotland

was growing exponentially.

- The use of hard drugs has reached epidemic proportions.

Unless action is taken, the crisis will be out of control.

- There was large amounts of cocaine being brought into Scotland by sea

in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

(ship horn sounds)

Antonio La Torre had already established a trade route

from Naples for his own restaurants, all sorts of drugs being traded

as well, but there was never any proof

that he was directly involved.

KEMP: There was never any evidence that La Torre

was importing drugs into Aberdeen.

But in 2001, the authorities in Italy started an investigation

looking into La Torre's family.

- Italian authorities start tapping phone calls

coming in to clan members.

- (man speaking Italian) - We're hearing discussions

about criminal operations, but there were also phone calls

oming into Italy from Aberdeen.

KEMP: The voice they heard was that of Antonio La Torre.

- It's all on the phone, calling daily to his brother.

They always referred to ‘sausages' and ‘movement.'

- Either he was buying a lot of sausages

or he was moving a lot of cash. - Exactly, it was money.

He's using the cover of Aberdeen to launder £500,000 a month

through restaurants. - A month?

- Turning dirty money, drugs money, into good money.

KEMP: The wire taps revealed

that La Torre's Scottish restaurants were fronts for a Mafia operation.

- He was the head of one of the biggest crime clans

in the south of Italy. - He was the head

of a Camorra crime family.

In 2005, the Italian authorities issued an extradition request

to Scottish police. (sirens wailing)

- La Torre's aware the net's closing in. So he goes on the run.

Hides out in Inverness, Dundee, Stirling.

- How long was he actually on the run for?

- A period of several months,

but he's running out of places to hide.

Eventually he's arrested in Aberdeen.

- Antonio La Torre is facing a 13-year jail sentence in Naples,

after being convicted there of a catalogue of crimes,

including racketeering, extortion and violence.

KEMP: Despite his convictions in Italy,

La Torre was never tried in the UK.

Aberdeen is probably the last place, you'd think,

that would be home to a Mafia organisation,

but that is what made it the perfect place

for Antonio La Torre to run an international criminal enterprise

that went undetected for years and years.

(bell tolls)

La Torre may have been the only man to be arrested,

but he must have had help here.

So there's little doubt that the Mafia had been operating

in the UK. But how long has this been going on for?

Steven. - Hey, Ross.

- Nice to see you. - Nice to meet you.

- How are you? Alright? - Good, yeah. Good.

KEMP: In the 1980s and '90s,

Stephen Gillen was a major player in London's gangland.

He served 12 years in prison for organised crime offences

alongside members of the Italian Mafia.

During your time inside,

you actually met up with some of the Mafia.

- Yeah, I knew a lot of these guys. In Whitemoor,

I met Francesco Di Carlo. - He was the one that was implicated

in the death of God's Banker, Calvi, under Blackfriars Bridge.

In prison, Stephen saw firsthand their strength as a criminal entity.

- It's not just an organisation, it's a way of life.

They're referred into this life,

put forward for an initiation process.

They would put a picture of a saint in their hand.

They would set a light to this.

That's the saints burning in their hand. They'd swear

that they would die if they betrayed the codes

of La Cosa Nostra.

You have a hierarchical structure:

soldato, soldier,

capo, captains of a crew.

Then you'd go up. You've got consigliere,

which is advisor, underboss, boss.

KEMP: This hierarchy evolved over centuries, in Sicily and Italy.

Then, the structure for organised crime

was franchised by migrant communities

all over the world.

We're in Hatton Garden now. We go right here, do we?

- Yeah, go right here to Little Italy.

KEMP: By the 1930s, families from rural Italy

had settled in the slums of London.

- The person who rises up very, very prominently,

very brutally, is Charles ‘Darby' Sabini.

He really comes up the old-school way,

which is blood and guts and brutal street smarts.

He's soon into gambling in the neighbourhood,

aligned to influential Jewish and Italian bookmakers.

- So these bookmakers , they need to be protected,

so no-one robs them. Is that how it works?

- Yeah, but it's a bit contrived, Ross.

Let's be clear about it. Yeah. He's going to them and saying,

"You need protection, pretty much from us.'

He soon has 300 people under him, you know?

- 300?! - 300 people, right?

He even imports gunmen from Sicily.

‘Darby' Sabini was the undisputed godfather in that era.

KEMP: But even criminal godfather Sabini wasn't strictly Mafia.

He hadn't sworn an oath to the brotherhood,

and his mother was Scottish.

To be a Mafia member, you have to be a full-blooded Italian.

So Sabini isn't Mafia.

When do the actual Mafia come to the UK?

- They actually infiltrated here in the 1960s,

but there's a very important distinction to make here:

this is not the Italian branch. This is the US Mafia,

the American Mob.

KEMP: The American Mob were largely descendants

of Sicilian Mafia, migrant crime families

who made fortunes selling bad alcohol

during Prohibition in the US,

and used it to build powerful empires.

By the 1960s, the infamous Five Families of New York

dominated organised crime in America.

So what were they doing in the UK?

Stephen is taking me to meet an extraordinary criminal contact

who encountered them at the time.

- Hey, Bobby. Hey, how you doing?

Bob, this is Ross. - My pleasure.

- Pleasure to meet you, Bobby. - Bobby McKew.

KEMP: Bobby soon reveals the American Mob's operation

in London. So Bobby, part of your job:

take the Mafia out for dinner. - It's about business.

KEMP: I'm investigating links between Britain

and the Italian Mafia.

So far, I've uncovered Mafia operations in Aberdeen,

Preston and London.

Now I'm trying to find out why, and how,

the powerful American-Italian Mafia came to Britain in the 1960s.

- My pleasure. - Pleasure to meet you, Bobby.

- Bobby. Bobby McKew.

KEMP: Bobby McKew is 99 years old,

and was part of London's criminal underworld at the time.

Tell me who these people are? - That's the Krays.

I liked Ronnie. He was the gay one. I liked him.

I wasn't really keen on Reggie terribly, but, in the end

you have to put both of them together.

That's certainly Billy.

- Billy Hill, he was the real godfather of London.

- I'd say you're right.

- How did you get involved with him? - I did a few things for him.

He liked me. - Yeah?

Bobby's boss, Billy Hill, ran London's criminal empire.

When gambling was legalised in Britain in 1960,

it presented Hill and his associates

with a unique opportunity.

- Suddenly they were able to open betting offices, casinos everywhere.

Overnight, Britain became the biggest gambling nation.

INTERVIEWER: What sort of people are you hoping to attract here?

- Membership is open to responsible persons

from all walks of life.

- If you know how, you can cheat.

- Do you have any idea how much money was being made?

- Well, I was told they had about £22m on one casino.

KEMP: £22m in the early 1960s

was the kind of money which made even the American Mafia take notice.

Having been kicked out of their Havana casinos

by Fidel Castro's 1959 Cuban revolution,

they turned their attention to London.

They've lost Havana, because there's been a revolution.

- Yes. - And all of a sudden,

gambling in the UK is now legal.

- A lot of Mafia people came over.

They wanted to come in and have a casino.

Angelo Bruno, he was very big.

- He was? This guy? - Angelo Bruno.

He would have been in the casino here, would have been his money.

Big boss. - Carlo Gambino?

Of the Gambino Family? - Yes.

- Yeah, he was the head of it. - He was the main man.

- And then of course, a really, really big name:

Meyer Lansky.

- He was the money man for all the Mafia.

- You met John Gotti, people like that?

- I was introduced to John Gotti.

- These are big members of the Five Families.

- These were the real architects of organised crime in the States.

- Billy didn't want them coming in at all,

because he was getting all the money.

- Right. - Nobody wanted the Mafia.

They didn't want the Americans in here.

But you weren't rude to them, I'll tell you that for nothing.

- Certainly not. - When they used to come over,

Billy, he'd tell me, "Buy 'em dinner

when they come in," which I did. - So Bobby, part of your job

working for Billy:

take the Mafia out for dinner. - Yes.

- Ultimately, it's about business. It's about money.

- It's about business, and about ... exactly.

KEMP: In the 1960s, the American Mafia

took controlling stakes in a number of London casinos,

including The Old Colony Sports Club in Mayfair.

It was the beginning of The Mob's relationship with Britain.

Not only was this country a place for the Mafia to hide and operate,

I'm now uncovering evidence of a much deeper relationship

with the Mob. So how far did it extend...

..and how deep did it go?

If I really want to find out how much influence the Mafia's had

in the UK, where should I go?

- If you really want to know the story

of all these heavyweight guys, there's only one place you to go,

and that's to the US.

This is where the real story is.

Thank you. - My pleasure.

- So the American Mafia was involved in casino money,

in London, in the '60s. And there's a saying:

'If you want to find out the truth, then follow the money.'

On the Mafia and Britain next time:

I'm in Philadelphia, where a Mob member reveals

their relationship with two notorious British gangsters.

- Ronnie and Reggie. - The Krays?

- The Krays, yeah.

We didn't know how crazy The Krays were.

A ton of heat came down. KEMP: Miami sees

a new generation of Mafia establish an international crime syndicate.

Colombians, Cubans, Mob guys, making lots and lots of money.

What were the police doing? - A lot of them were corrupt.

There was a crew of cops that were killing people.

KEMP: And I uncover the role a British Mafia cell played

exporting drugs into America.

The Coana Family have a representative in London.

Where in London, do you know? - Woking.

- Woking, Surrey? - Yeah. Surrey, yes.

- Are you kidding me? - No.

(grave music)

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