Italy’s three biggest Mafia organisations have formed a Hydra alliance to target the nation’s financial heartland, investigators have said.

The ‘Ndrangheta faction from Calabria, the Camorra of Naples and the Sicilian-based Cosa Nostra clan have joined forces to make the powerful Mafia alliance.

The federation, which has been created to take full advantage of the wealth in the north of Italy, has been likened to a Hydra, the three-headed mythological beast.

But the newfound relationship extends beyond Italian shores with ties being forged with Chinese criminal gangs who specialise in international money smuggling.

The formidable alliance was revealed following Operation Hydra, an investigation by Italian authorities which led to a ‘maxi-trial’ beginning in May.

A total of 145 defendants were charged in relation to organised crime and 62 were sentenced inside Milan’s Opera prison courtroom bunker in January.

Another 45 individuals are currently facing trial in Italy’s Wealthiest region of Lombardy.

Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo, said the mafia clans banded together to increase the profits from their illicit activity. 

Inside Milan’s Opera prison coutroom bunker during the Hydra Trial on July 9

‘Even in the trafficking of drugs, it is clear the historic differences between the mafia organisations are dissolving,’ he said in a 111-page report seen by the Telegraph.

He added that in recent years there has been a ‘process of integration’ between the clans.

Using money made from smuggling drugs into Italy from South America, the three mafia groups use the profits to invest in a variety of businesses including construction and waste disposal firms and even supermarkets. 

In one transaction said to have already taken place as part of the alliance, a massive delivery of cocaine to the ‘Ndrangheta clan in southern Italy was arranged by the Camorra faction in Naples.

Although the Mafia groups have kept their respective identities, they work together when collaboration could ‘result in the better management of their business affairs,’ lead prosecutor of the Hydra trial, Alessandra Cerreti said.

Alongside their ties to criminal gangs based in China, the alliance is also working with the Albanian mafia, especially in relation to drug trafficking.

Genoa’s chief prosecutor, Nicola Piacente said: ‘The latest investigations have revealed stable and strategic relations between Calabrian organisations and the Albanians.’

Notorious for the grizzly ways they dispatch their enemies – including melting their victims in vats of acid – investigators said the three mafia organisations are now less violent.

National anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor, Giovanni Melillo, on September 19, 2025

‘Acts of violence and intimidation are fewer and fewer,’ chief prosecutor in Turin, Giovanni Bombardieri told La Stampa.

He said the mafia groups use their drug trafficking profits to take control of struggling businesses by imposing high-interest loans.

Mr Bombardieri, who was previously based in Calabria, added that the ‘Ndrangheta clan has become efficient in infiltrating construction firms.

The clans have recognised that waging wars against one another is damaging and instead working together is mutually beneficial without sacrificing their autonomy.

It is understood that clans use parallel banking arrangements operated by Chinese criminals to shift funds and pay their drug suppliers across the world.

The Chinese gangs work using the hard-to-trace money transfer system known as ‘hawala’, to evade the authorities.

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