Fourth column - Italy keeps a rein on smallest mafia group

While Italy's three main mafia groups, the Costa Nostra (Sicily), the Camorra (Campania) and the 'Ndrangheta (Calabria), are frequently the focus of media and police attention, the United Sacred Crown (Sacra Corona Unita: SCU) remains a relatively unknown organisation. However, given its role as the major group operating in the Puglia region of southern Italy, it ranks as Italy's fourth mafia organisation.

Where the SCU differs from the other mafia groups is its relative youth, having first emerged in 1981. This allowed it to adopt structures and tactics from the more well-established mafia groups. For example, the SCU learnt its low-level smuggling tactics from the Camorra, drug trafficking strategies and connections from the Cosa Nostra and human smuggling and kidnapping techniques from the 'Ndrangheta.

Yet while this sharing of different techniques might be expected to make the SCU one of the most professional and successful Italian mafia groups, its history has been characterised by internal splits and rivalries, making it vulnerable to police targeting. As a result, it has lost much of its original dominance and there are now a multitude of clans and associations in this region, acting or opposing each other in order to control the lucrative criminal activities.