U.S. personnel lived for decades in mafia-built housing condemned for crime and disrepair.

Evidence

And this is where thousands of U.S. military personnel and their families lived for decades. It was only in the 1990s that the commanding officer in Naples, Admiral Michael Boorda, finally ordered them to leave “because of the poor condition of the buildings and high crime.” Unfazed, Cristoforo Coppola and a member of the particularly murderous Casalesi clan cofounded a business that would bid on contracts to revitalize the environmental and economic life of the coast, which the Villaggio itself had helped destroy. When some of the Villaggio’s towers were torn down after barely four decades of occupancy, Vincenzo Coppola did the demolition work. For the Coppolas, it was profit upon profit upon profit—thanks in no small part to Camorra connections. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 347

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• A Camorra-family-built housing village once housed U.S. military families (similarity 0.86)
• The US Navy again chose a mafia-linked developer for its Naples housing. (similarity 0.85)
• U.S. Navy personnel in Naples rent villas from Camorra crime families at inflated prices (similarity 0.85)
• Organized crime built and maintained U.S. bases despite facing U.S. anti-crime sanctions (similarity 0.83)
• The Navy knowingly leased housing owned by sanctioned Camorra bosses’ families. (similarity 0.82)
• The US Navy rented housing from Camorra money-laundering fronts (similarity 0.82)
• US taxpayers paid Camorra clans for housing at inflated rates (similarity 0.81)
• Widespread corruption made bypassing permits more profitable than legal construction in Italy. (similarity 0.80)
• The Navy refused to hand over its housing database to Italian anti-mafia investigators. (similarity 0.80)
• The U.S. Navy has worked with the Camorra since World War II (similarity 0.79)
• Lease-construction contracts produced shoddy bases built by mafia firms (similarity 0.79)
• U.S. military relationships helped the Camorra surpass the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in power. (similarity 0.79)
• Locating bases in poor crime-ridden areas entwines the military with organized crime (similarity 0.79)