Maria Serraino

Maria Serraino (1931 – 7 December 2017) was an Italian female criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria. She is one of the rare examples of a female leading a 'Ndrangheta clan.

She belongs to a longstanding 'Ndrangheta family from the Reggio Calabria area, the Serraino 'ndrina, from Cardeto, about 10 km southeast of the city of Reggio Calabria. She is a cousin of Paolo Serraino, the boss of the Calabrian branch of the clan.

She married Rosario Di Giovine, a prolific tobacco smuggler. Between 1949 and 1985, he was sentenced 65 times for tobacco smuggling and 23 other violations of the tobacco monopoly rules. In 1963 the family moved to Milan. The Serraino-Di Giovine clan ultimately controlled the territory around Piazza Prealpi, a square located in the north of Milan, and via Belgioioso. The family began their illegal career with smuggling cigarettes and receiving stolen goods. Maria Serraino, stood for trial on tobacco smuggling seven times and six times for fencing in the 1970s.

During the 1970s, the trade shifted from cigarettes to drugs (including hashish, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy) and weapons, and involved the whole family of twelve children. The weapons were sent to Calabria, where their relatives were involved in the Second 'Ndrangheta war (1985–1991). Her older sons, Antonio and Emilio Di Giovine, who dealt in stolen cars, helped to develop the drug trade from their contacts with foreign criminals. Within a few years time, the family’s activities concentrated on the drug business and by the late 1980s, the Serraino-Di Giovine clan ran one of the largest and most successful drug dealing enterprises in Milan. Their small local business transformed into a significant international trade.

While the mother ruled the actual fiefdom in Milan, another central operation was located in Spain and managed by Emilio Di Giovine, trafficking hashish from Morocco to England and cocaine from Colombia to Milan. The operation in Milan was fully recognized by other criminal organizations that ran drug trafficking in neighbouring areas. Drug suppliers dealt only and exclusively with her, unwilling to risk taking other customers out of fear of reprisals. She ensured the overall operation of the association by distributing merchandise to her other sons and other partners, as well as collecting the money from middleman. Other important duties involved contacts with corrupt law enforcement officers.

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