The Carabinieri discover in various operations the frozen bodies of 250 of these rodents, consumed at the banquets of the Calabrian mafia
The Carabinieri who arrested a 52-year-old man on Friday last week for illegal possession of two pistols in Oppido Mamertina, a town in Calabria, the region at the tip of the ‘boot’ that forms the Italian Peninsula, should not have of being very surprised to discover that the detainee kept the bodies of ten dormouse in a refrigerator. It has become an almost common find to come across these frozen animals. With this new seizure, there are already more than 250 dead and bagged rodents discovered by the Carabinieri in various operations carried out in Calabria in just over a month.
The most important took place in mid-October in Delianuova, another town in this southern region. When the agents went to dismantle a marijuana plantation, they saw that the traffickers had the bodies of 235 frozen dormouse stored in a cold room, stored in bags, ready to be cooked. The Carabinieri also found several of these live rodents in a fattening cage, which in Italy cannot be hunted nor the law considers suitable for human consumption. This finding, which led to the arrest of three people on charges of drug trafficking and the capture and death of protected animal species, brought to light the existence of a clandestine market for the sale of dormouse that has members of the ‘ Ndrangheta, the powerful Calabrian mafia.
Roasted or with sauce, these rodents that can measure up to 20 centimeters are a traditional food of the Italian regions of Calabria and Abruzzo, although they have been protected since 2006. «It is an archaic dish, typical of mountain areas, such as Aspromonte Calabrian. Years ago everyone ate it and it may still happen that it is present at a table of the members of the ‘Ndrangheta, but it is something hidden because it is an animal that cannot be hunted, ”the journalist Michele Albanese explains to this newspaper. who has been reporting for 35 years on this criminal organization that, from its bases in this impoverished southern region of the country, has managed to spread its tentacles throughout the world, including Spain.
Criminologist Anna Sergi, associate professor at the University of Essex (Great Britain), confirms that eating dormouse for members of the ‘Ndrangheta is a demonstration of power, of their status above the law. “It is a dish that is offered to those who come from outside Calabria to visit a boss,” says Sergi in the newspaper ‘Quotidiano del Sud’. “Although the clans of the ‘Ndrangheta are seen as totally internationalized and globalized, they also have a primitive dimension, which stems from the Calabrian peasant culture. Without that base they would not be able to maintain such strong ties to their home territory. That base is also demonstrated in the dishes that you put on the table, like the dormouse. They show the double heart of the ‘Ndrangheta, the traditional and the global’.
An ancient custom
The custom of eating dormouse dates back to the days of the legions of Ancient Rome and is still present today among the members of this criminal group, as shown by some wiretaps carried out by the security forces. In the framework of the Solar operation, ordered by the Reggio Calabria anti-mafia leadership and which led to the arrest of 200 criminals in 2008, conversations were recorded between members of the ‘Ndrangheta in which they talked about a meal they were going to celebrate at the mountain with some “foreign” friends. In the conversation the organizers of the banquet were instructed not to stop preparing roasted dormouse to offer to the diners.
Some repentant mobster has also confessed to investigators that this peculiar dish is common at meals in ‘Ndrangheta, although there are some criminals who disgust it. According to organizations in defense of animals, tens of thousands of these rodents, famous because they spend the winter months in torpor, are captured every year in Calabria, especially in the Aspromonte regions, to be later sold for about 5 euros each one.
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