‘We became number one because nothing could stop us. We weren’t afraid of anything.’ The bellicose ferocity of the Secondigliano clans grows along with their ability to leverage money. The son of Papele ’e Marano had never killed a man, he had to be taught to kill. During a feud, having numerous gunmen is not only an element of strength or pride, but also safety. Not to mention that one of your men, no matter how loyal he is, can always betray you, whereas your son, your own blood, will not. That’s why there is a school for killing. ‘On Via Cupa Cardone there was a guy in a white Fiat 126, dealing drugs; he was one of our men. Abbinante told his son: “Shoot him, it’s easy. Go on, drain him, shoot him full of holes.”’ It’s a term that the Camorra has borrowed directly from autopsy reports. ‘So Franchino unloaded the magazine into the guy, who ended up being a sacrificial target for the kid’s baptism by fire. “You see that,” his father remarked, “killing is a joke, nothing to it.”’

Cosimo Di Lauro had to perform the same test. Though he was the crown prince of the clan responsible for the secessionist war, he couldn’t shoot. ‘To make him a boss, they had to make him do at least one killing,’ Prestieri explains. ‘One day they came up with a quaglia appojata.’ He means a sitting duck, unarmed, unmoving, unaware of being in the sights. The Camorra almost always kills people under those conditions. ‘Picardi was a pusher whom the Di Lauro had decided to offer Cosimino as a target. Cosimo goes up to the pusher who expects a hello, maybe a word or two. Instead Cosimo takes out the gun, and bam, bam, bam. But he only grazes him and the pusher runs off. To make a long story short, Cosimo looked like an asshole …’ It was forbidden to speak about this sorry display in Secondigliano.

The savagery does not end there. Today, Prestieri explains, a simple rule applies to former members of the Di Lauro clan who want to switch to the winning side of the secessionists. ‘You have to kill a relative of yours, pick one and shoot him. That’s the only way they’ll take you into their clan, because then they’re sure you’re not tricking them.’ Maurizio Prestieri is precise and methodical when he talks. He looks you in the eye and is not defiant. On the contrary. When you sit face to face with him you almost get a feeling of sadness. A man like him could have done so much and instead he chose to become a boss the way you’d choose to become a businessman. For the Camorra, businessman and boss are synonymous.

COKE MANAGER

He presents me with a maths problem concerning the white powder, a challenge as elementary as it is mind-boggling: