Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Australian True Crime International with Michelle Laurie.
Chapter 2: What motivated Sanne de Boer to buy a house in Calabria?
In 2006, Dutchwoman Sana Deboer had a small financial windfall and became one of those people we read about who bought an incredibly cheap run-down house in a picturesque village in Italy's Calabria region. She was aware of the region's reputation as a mafia stronghold, but found it hard to believe her sweet neighbours could be involved in anything like that.
Eventually, though, Sana began to realise that the very fabric of everyday life in her village was controlled by a strict code, enforced by the Drangada, one of the most powerful crime organisations in the world.
Chapter 3: How did Sanne's perception of her neighbors change over time?
Sana has written a book about her observations and experiences. It's called The New Mafia, and she joins us to talk about it.
Chapter 4: What experiences led Sanne to write 'The New Mafia'?
This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. And a warning, this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence.
I was invited by an author to help them write their book.
Chapter 5: How does the 'Ndrangheta influence daily life in Calabria?
So I was working there actually as an editor. I had never been in the south of Italy.
Chapter 6: What shocking event highlighted the power of the local mafia?
I was immediately, I fell in love with the natural beauty of the place. I was living on this beautiful hilltop village by the sea. The people in the village was super welcoming to me. It was just, I'd never expected to want to stay there after finishing that book, but I couldn't help it.
It feels like you turned a dream into reality. You turned something that seems like a ridiculous fairy tale into reality. You're actually doing it.
Maybe I had an idea that it would teach me a lot about the world as well.
Chapter 7: What distinguishes the 'Ndrangheta from the Cosa Nostra?
But of course, I couldn't know at that point.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it is important to note that you were an editor. You were working for a publisher, right? So you weren't working as a journalist. You didn't move there to write a book about this.
I certainly didn't move there to investigate the mafia.
That's what's so great about it, because initially it really is, it's a story about someone who moves into this environment. And I guess maybe like a lot of us in the back of your mind, you're aware that, or you've heard the term Calabrian mafia. Maybe there's some movies about it.
Chapter 8: How do family ties impact loyalty within the 'Ndrangheta?
But when you got there, you write in the book that you just sort of thought, oh, as if my beautiful, sweet neighbors, you know, these people are so lovely. They're so good. I can't see any evidence of anything nefarious around here.
Right. That's right. And of course, it took a while also for me to kind of get to understand a little bit more about the local mafia clans, because it's understandable that people wouldn't be very ready to speak about it with me. Also, another factor was my Italian was still very basic. Yeah.
It took me quite some years to be able to read the papers and to be able to eventually start reporting on the subject and to go and speak to all kinds of people about it.
I've been telling people about the book and the story I always relay to them is one night you heard a car explosion and everyone went out on the street and you realised that it belonged to a lady who worked at the council who gave out building permits... And eventually you realize she mustn't have given a permit to someone who wanted one. But significantly, the police never came.
The fire brigade never came.
She never even called them. Right. It was in the middle of the night. It was such a shocking event. Everybody came out of their houses. Everybody was also very supportive of that family that was killed. obviously heartbroken and shocked and very much afraid of what this would mean. But it was very significant that I realized nobody was calling the police. She never filed a police report.
Everybody helped to put out the fire. And eventually she quit her job and she moved away, sadly enough, as well.
So it's a very telling moment that everybody else understands what's happening and you still didn't really get it. I was trying to...
be as discreet as possible and still get some information. But I realized the complexity of this all and the great emotional impact that this criminal presence had on regular people. And I think that was probably also a very important factor in me wanting to investigate eventually, because actually I'm not very much of a true crime reader or I wasn't even in so much into the subject.
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