In San Vittore Olona, in the province of Milan, we have Carmelo Novella, known as compare Nuzzo. He is the godfather of the ’Ndrangheta in Lombardy, a body that is suitably called ‘la Lombardia’. His résumé includes years spent in prison for mafia association, weapons and drugs. Nuzzo has a revolutionary plan: to make Lombardy’s locali independent from Calabria (until then they had been a branch of the Calabrian mother organization) and, at the same time, make them ‘dependent’ on their regional boss, namely, Nuzzo himself. As Nuzzo sees it, he can now manage Lombardy on his own, since it is in Lombardy that the economic heart of the organization lies. To attract a following, he rewards some associates by granting them rank, and even goes so far as to create new locali without seeking permission from central command in Calabria, stepping over the then boss of Milan’s locale, Cosimo Barranca. Nuzzo therefore breaks the rules. This of course does not please central command, which decides to settle the matter, as is done in these cases.

Nuzzo knows that something is up because the Calabrian bosses at the upper echelons of the provincia (the highest rank) travel up to Milan every two weeks, yet they steer clear of meeting him, they avoid him, the nominal boss of Lombardy. But, above all, at a certain point the daughter of a boss from Gioiosa Jonica gets married. There is a big celebration and Nuzzo is not invited, whereas his enemies are. Weddings are actually a time when meetings take place, when decisions are made. Not being invited to the wedding is a clear signal, a sign that Nuzzo is about to be ‘sacked’. From that time on he’s a dead man walking. To the point that his number two man sleeps with the door bolted and a pistol under his pillow, and is guarded by a hit man.

And a month later, in fact, on the afternoon of 14 July, Carmelo Novella is sitting at a table in a café in San Vittore Olona with some friends, under the portico. It is 5.45 when two guys, unmasked and wearing motorcyclist’s vests, enter the café. One of the two orders a ‘cappuccino bianco’, a white cappuccino. The barista will remember it because it’s an odd request, even a little comical: maybe he meant to order what a Milanese would have called a cappuccino chiaro, with extra milk. Then the two guys walk up to Novella’s table outside. They call his name: ‘Carmelo!’ Novella, who has just stood up to order something, finds himself facing his killers: they shoot him, four times, from less than two yards away. When he sees the gun barrel, Novella tries to ward off the first shot, shielding himself with his arm. The other bullets, 38-calibre lead bullets, finish him off. The killers then calmly step over the body and move off on foot, walking swiftly and disappearing around the corner.