US taxpayers paid Camorra clans for housing at inflated rates

Evidence

Beyond Iovine, investigators discovered that of some fifty villas seized from another Camorra clan, U.S. personnel were renting at least forty. Police suspected there were probably “hundreds more.” The Navy—and U.S. taxpayers—were paying the Camorristi from 2,000 to as much as 8,000 per month for the homes. (They were paying these rents to other landlords, too, at two to three times local averages.) “We know full well that many of the large villas in the Caserta area and those near military bases have dubious owners, and have often been built illegally with money originating from criminal activities,” said Sergio de Gregorio, the Italian senator responsible for relations with NATO forces. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 362

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Echoes the broader theme of bases pumping inflated money into local economies (chapter covering economic distortions), and taxpayer subsidization of organized crime.

Related

• U.S. Navy personnel in Naples rent villas from Camorra crime families at inflated prices (similarity 0.93)
• The US Navy rented housing from Camorra money-laundering fronts (similarity 0.90)
• U.S. military relationships helped the Camorra surpass the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in power. (similarity 0.84)
• The Navy knowingly leased housing owned by sanctioned Camorra bosses’ families. (similarity 0.83)
• The U.S. Navy has worked with the Camorra since World War II (similarity 0.82)
• U.S. personnel lived for decades in mafia-built housing condemned for crime and disrepair. (similarity 0.81)
• The Navy refused to hand over its housing database to Italian anti-mafia investigators. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• U.S. military and taxpayer dollars directly supported the Camorra’s economy #corroborates (0.85) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 380
• NATO rent payments flowed into Camorra mafia coffers in Naples #corroborates (0.80)