Word: ferragosto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Calabrian Mob, which began to accumulate wealth in the 1970s and 1980s through kidnapping and extortion, has grown exponentially in the past five years as it has teamed up with Colombian cocaine producers. The "Massacre of Ferragosto," the gangland killing of six young Calabrian men one August night in 2007, in Duisburg, Germany, was the bloodiest sign that the crime syndicate was spreading its influence across the continent...
...derives from the Greek word for "honorable man" - controls wide swaths of territory through intimidation and extortion. The payoff has been great: it has grown into a world leader in cocaine trafficking, with an estimated $47 billion in annual revenue. But the toll has been heavy. The "Massacre of Ferragosto" - the gangland killing last Aug. 15 in Duisburg, Germany, of six young men from in and around San Luca - was the first major 'Ndrangheta killing to occur on foreign soil. Violent death is more common in Calabria, where three people were killed in a five-day period in late March...
...padre è Michele,” my dad said, and instantly hoards of other relatives poured out of the house exclaiming “Santa Maria!” and smothering our cheeks with kisses. They ushered us into the kitchen where the women were preparing the Ferragosto lunch, comparable to American Thanksgiving. Half an hour later, more food had been made, extra chairs were fitted around the table, and my brother and I were instructed to sit at the kids’ table with a cousin whose name was Maria Grazie—forever “Maria...