Nigerian Organized Criminal Groups in Italy: Secrecy, Hierarchy, Rules and Conflicts

This paper analyses Nigerian criminal groups in Italy using a theoretical perspective based on the literature on secret societies, where a criminal organization is a "judicial order" with its own rules and codes of conduct for its members. The aim of the paper is to shed light on how these criminal groups are structured, the bonds they maintain, the rules they follow, and the discrepancies between those rules and the actual behaviour of members. Additionally, it examines the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations as criminal entities. To address these research questions, we mainly analysed judicial proceedings from the past two decades involving Nigerian individuals convicted of mafia association under the Italian penal code. The paper is divided into three sections: the first introduces the research questions, theoretical framework, sources, and methodology; the second presents the research findings related to the internal organization, recruitment, rules, and conflicts both within and between the criminal groups studied; the final section discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Nigerian criminal organizations operating in Italy.