A Sicilian Rugby Team Fighting the Mafia - And Ukraine Update
31:40 Share

ButcherBox, you guys have heard me talk about it before. It is a service that I used even before they were an advertiser because I like getting high-quality meat and seafood that I can trust online.

right to my door, 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, pork-raised crate-free, and wild-caught seafood. We are only like a month and a half away from chili season. You're going to want to stock your freezer with a lot of meat that's not going to cost you that much at all. It's an incredible value. There's free shipping. You can curate it to customize your box plans, and it gets delivered right to your doorstep.

No more annoying trips to the grocery store or the butcher. It's going to save you time and save you money. Sign up for ButcherBox today by going to butcherbox.com slash underworlds and use code underworld at checkout to get $30 off your first box. Again, that's butcherbox.com slash underworlds and use code underworlds.

Hi guys and welcome to the Underworld Podcast where every week we take you into a crazy and wonderful story from the world of organised crime. I'm your host Sean Williams, I'm coming to you from Berlin and I'm joined amazingly by my co-host Danny Gold. Yeah, yeah guys, I'm in Ukraine so I haven't really been available the past couple weeks and

Very sorry about that. I will never leave you alone with Sean again for this long in the future. But yeah, I think this is a pretty great episode. Sean, you've been on the road a ton recently too, yeah? Yeah, I've been all over. I was in Belize, the States, all over Germany doing some crazy story about Vladimir Putin and now France, but that was something different. But yeah,

Yeah, yeah. More stuff about more about that soon. But where are you, Crane? Are you right now? Yeah, so I'm in Kharkiv right now, which is in northeast Ukraine, close to the border with Russia. The second biggest city and it had been under pretty intense shelling since the beginning of the war. In recent days, they've they've really pushed the Russian army back some units like all the way back to the border. So they're having some great advances there.

I was able to get out to some of them recently, I think yesterday or two. So be on the lookout for that. And we'll probably do maybe a bonus episode getting more into the details of this stuff. But I had a big story rolling stone last week about these guys that deliver aid to the front line. One of them sells a hangover remedy drink. It's a good time. But yeah, sorry, I've kind of slacked on the episodes. I will make that up to you guys. But Sean's got a really interesting one coming right here, yeah? Yeah.

Yeah, so folks might know, but I was in Catania, Sicily in Italy a couple of months ago now doing a story for Sports Illustrated about a rugby club that's kind of standing up to the mafia out there doing some great work. Really interesting guys. It was a wonderful trip. So they've turned it into a little mini documentary. We thought we'd sort of publish it here and learn a bit more about what Danny's up to at the same time. What are your plans?

Yeah, I mean, I've been here about two and a half, three weeks, and I'm going to stay in Kharkiv a couple more days. We're working on a couple things. And then I'm going to try to go, I think, to the south, to Odessa and Mikhailov. Maybe spend some time in Kiev a little bit more. But yeah, I should be back around in two weeks. We can get back to some...

regularly scheduled episodes and keep things moving with with all the uh all the stories that you know and love or don't know but will love and everything like that oh yeah so have you been spending like most of your time out like out there with you were with a bunch of the volunteers right

um like out in the east somewhere yeah i was with the volunteer group they were more like uh volunteers that that don't fight they just kind of you know the guy sources the stuff delivers gets vests like body armor um thermal optics are big here drones from all over the world and drives them to his friends on the front and gives it to them it's a bit older so he can't really fight

And the other day I was with the Ukrainian forces. I think it's a mixture of the Territorial Defense Force and a Ukrainian National Guard in this area here. I posted some photos actually on Twitter if you guys go look. Maybe I'll put them on the Underworld Instagram account. But yeah, so I was with those guys for a bit and we're trying to work something out with them. Maybe spend a couple nights with them and really see what's going on because it's been a...

It's crazy, man. I mean, they were like setting up their sleeping areas in like the wooded area of the forest. You know, they're in Russian trenches that they cleared out a couple of days ago. Now they've taken them over. There's like burned, rusted out tanks everywhere. And you can hear just artillery thumping maybe like a mile away. So it's not what you would, I don't know. I mean, the definition of the front is loose, right? But it's...

I was actually kind of concerned. They're super relaxed. And I'm like, are you sure we're okay just to be out here relatively close to the open? And because we were on higher terrain and the Russian forces were quite busy with the more advanced parts of their unit, they were pretty chill about it. But I was not. And I don't like walking in those areas too when they've recently been cleared. I'm just terrified of IEDs and mines, especially after working in Syria and Iraq. So

That's always, that's always fun. And I've, I've started smoking again, so that's going well. Oh, that's the sign that everything's going really, really well.

So, like, how are you getting around there? Yeah, man. It's, I mean, some people have rented cars, but there's some fuel problems. I actually, you can take the overnight train from Kiev to Kharkiv, which is crazy because Kharkiv is still being shelled, you know. And the trains are amazing here. But I've unfortunately really started traveling a lot, like, overnight. So I've been taking night trains quite a bit, which, you know,

I thought would be something that I wouldn't have to do a lot in life after I was like 25, but here I am. And yeah, it's, but yeah, no car, cars, like,

driving up and we had to walk at the last place we were at because it was pretty heavy and i didn't want to take a civilian car like a soft car um over to where we were so we kind of parked at one point and uh you know they told us it was fine and they made us put these this camouflage netting over the car which kind of means it's not fine you know yeah so so that's kind of how we did and we kind of walked up to where they were and everything like that but

Yeah, it's been tough. Access, I think, for a lot of journalists has been really tough to really get where things are happening. Unfortunately, like a number were killed in the early weeks, a couple that I think we knew. And, you know, they've always been pretty strict with access. And I think it's... Unfortunately, you know, it's a necessity. They're doing it because they don't want reporters getting killed. And it's a brutal war, you know? It's not like...

covering some other wars where it, you know, this is artillery and artillery, right? It's, it's a heavy duty stuff and it's, uh, it's, it's pretty grinding, you know, and you can see it on these guys' faces when you're out there. It's not, um, this isn't like raids and, and, and small arms fire, right? It's like heavy, heavy duty stuff, but,

The guys I was with seem, their morale is super high, man. They're claiming, you know, they've pushed the Russians essentially to the border in the northeast area from where we were, and they think they can do it where we were in the north and northwest within the week, which might be a little bit...

presumptuous but they've they've really you know these lines that were held for for weeks and weeks and we go almost months and they broke them recently so they're they're feeling quite good about things i know they're getting new equipment every day so you know hopefully that uh they they wrap it up soon yeah definitely and i was lucky enough to read a draft of yours the story that's coming out pretty soon do you want to tell us a little bit uh about that if you can

Yeah, it's being edited right now. Probably. It's just a crazy story of a family that the woman was a doctor. Her husband was a former police officer and they were in an occupied area for five weeks. And she was basically the only doctor treating this village. And everyone was coming to her house and she was treating them. And the Russians took the three of them and tortured them. They let her go. They took the husband and son first to Belarus to a filtration camp. They

Then they took the husband to prison, a prison in Russia, which is what they've been doing. They've been taking Ukrainians to actual prisons in Russia. He was freed a month later in a prisoner exchange. The son is still missing. And the husband is like, he was an Afghan war vet. So he was in the Soviet military, like commando style, 82 to 84 in Afghanistan. He's tough as nails, you know? So if anyone can survive this situation, it's him. And he wasn't even...

He dealt with it. He had some very bad things happen to him, but he said he's fine. He just wanted to know his family was safe. And they're still waiting to hear...

about the sun and hopefully when this comes out um which again i'll put up and make sure people can see it uh we can get some answers and figure it out because it's i mean it's crazy man like they it he was in prison he was taken to a russian prison he's a civilian like he's a civilian the guy's 58 years old right he wasn't fighting he was at home helping deliver food and helping treat people like he's a civilian they accused him of directing artillery but like

There's no way he was doing that. And his son's a civilian too. And yeah, it's pretty heavy. So hopefully that will get out there this week and you guys can read about it because it's a pretty harrowing piece. Yeah, yeah, it is. There's some heartbreaking details in there. It's a tough one, but some amazing reporting. So if you're listening, please do check that out. I think loads of folks have asked more questions

about our journalism and we've both been insanely busy with loads of stuff so we'll have more of this kind coming up on the patreon hopefully uh you have too much now other than smoking mobile reds writing all night but yeah thank you guys sorry this this episode is kind of unorthodox uh in the way it's done but um you know people always tell us i think especially on the patreon and those are the people that we care about the most that uh they want to hear what we're up to and we're getting into even if it's not specifically related to organized crime so um yeah well

Did the line go dead? Maybe I lost you there. This is like proper war zone reporting, guys. Equipment trouble. Wait, are you back? I think I can hear you. Yeah, anyway, I hope this is the kind of thing that is interesting to everyone listening to this. Yeah, what do you reckon? Yeah, hopefully it is. Anyway, I'll let you get on with it and give them an explanation of what they're about to hear because I think it's pretty cool. All right, man. I will do just that. Take care and stay safe. Later, guys.

Alright, yeah, so while Danny is in Kharkiv writing and smoking and being a proper war journo, yeah, I'm going to just do a quick intro to this show because it's a bit different, as we said. It's about a trip that I went on a couple of months ago to Catania, which is like the second city in Sicily, where I got to meet a bunch of really cool, interesting people who...

many years ago set up this rugby club to kind of fight the draw of organized crime for young people in the city. It's in this place called Librino, which is like the Bronx of Sicily. It's like huge old 1960s and 70s housing estates, project buildings. It was kind of like

A utopian project gone wrong and it just became one of the most crime ridden places in the whole of Europe. I think it has the highest joblessness in Europe. I might be wrong about that. Looking back at it now. But I spent about a week there with a wonderful photographer as well, Alessio.

Uh, and we, we put together this story that's out today as you're listening to this. Um, and yeah, so please listen to this, read that story. And of course, like SI, uh, sports illustrator, you're going to publish it on their own, uh, podcast as well. So check that out. Cause I mean, it's sports illustrated. So obviously it's really, really good, but yeah. Um, I think I'll just leave it there and, uh, we'll be back with, with, uh, probably more conventional show next week, but, uh,

Yeah, let us know what you think, guys. Hope you enjoy it. And now, the story of an Italian rugby club, Briganti di Labrino. The name Briganti...

It comes from the word brigand, which is someone who's a rebel or a pirate or someone rallying against the status quo or the authorities of the time. And actually Briganti also comes from this Calabrian folk song called Briganti Simore, or roughly To Die a Brigand. And there's a key line from that song and it goes, The land is ours and nobody can touch it. Let's make our enemies tremble.

There's been equipment stolen. Someone fired a bullet into the door of the clubhouse. It's just an ongoing fight against organized crime in Labrino, and it's not going to stop anytime soon. The players feel so strongly about their club these days that they actually put in night shifts to guard the Sant'Eodoro every night. Can you imagine Leo Messi or Neymar putting in night shifts to guard the Parc des Princes in Paris? This is Sean Williams.

He traveled to the foot of Mount Etna to write a story for Sports Illustrated about a rugby club standing up to the mafia. From here on out, you'll hear his voice and some of the people he met through a translator.

Labrino is a sprawling suburb of Catania, which is the second largest city on the Italian island of Sicily. It was built in the late 60s and 70s as a modern utopia feeding the city with workers. As it turned out, the money dried up. The city didn't build the shops and the swimming pools and the gyms and the facilities that the people were being promised. And rather than be a utopia, it kind of ended up as a ruined dystopian conglomerate

crumbling collection of tower blocks. One of the most interesting guys I met while I was in Catania was a player for the first men's team called Alessio Panabianco. I have a book... I mean, I...

So my relationship with Librino, it's love and hate at the same time. Hate because it's not a good place where you can grow up, but also I love it because it's the place where I grew up, it's my childhood. There wasn't a single high school, opportunities were scarce, and in scenarios like this, the mafia can easily take hold.

Just down the road is the centre of Catania. That's like an ancient city, cobblestone streets, beautiful churches, all the things you might think about when you think of Sicily, Italy, or even the Godfather, which of course was set on the island and is how most people think Italian mafia, mafiosi, look like. Although the people who run Labrino, they're not wearing pinstripes and they don't have tommy guns in violin cases. This is a very, very different type of organised crime.

These were tracksuit-wearing, drug-smuggling thugs who murdered thousands in a series of wars and bombing campaigns across the era. Finally, in 1986, Sicilian authorities cracked down and conducted the world's largest trial at a special-made bunker inside of a Palermo prison. By 1992, prosecutors had convicted 338 of the so-called Maxi Trials' 475 defendants.

Later that year, mob assassins murdered those prosecutors, shocking Sicilians. But the deaths were the last convulsions of an underworld on its knees. In the following years, the island's mafia grew more diffuse, with a growing income divide. Wealthier mobsters moved into white-collar crimes. Small-time crooks battled for scraps in poor local markets such as Labrino.

peddling stolen goods and drugs through kids who stood to face only reduced juvenile prison terms. This poor, social poor condition, actually it's gold for the mafia because maybe they have cash, cash money to support the family. Enter Briganti di Labrino, a rugby club.

It started at a local social club when one of the leaders, Piero Mancuso, brought in a rugby ball and started tossing it around between the members. The club's philosophy was staunchly left-wing, anti-fascist, anti-racist, welcoming everyone into the fold in a city which was pretty right-wing at the time. They wanted to give everyone a good start, basically, keep kids away from crime.

Rugby isn't very popular in southern Italy or Sicily at all. Some people play it in the north, but really it's soccer or calcio in the local language, which is the preeminent sport. But soccer has a long and sordid history with the mafia. Members of Naples' Camorra crime syndicate plied Diego Maradona with drugs and sex workers in the 1980s.

There's so much that is intertwined in Italian sport with organised crime. There are dozens of clubs where there have been mafiosi running the place. Mancuso was also wary of soccer's on-field culture, which rewards flops and theatricality, and which centres on an obsession with individual talent. In contrast, no ball reaches the opposing try-line without everybody's involvement.

Soccer is balletic. Rugby is trench warfare. In rugby, you need to look at what you have around you, what there is in the playground. It's not enough to have in your team a very good player. You have also to work with the others. If you fall, says Gloria Mertoli, the captain of Briganti's senior women's team,

teammates will help you back up. This is like life because this will help you always to live, standing up again after you fell. So you fall and then you stand up and you continue.

The Sant'Eodoro is Briganti's beloved ground, but they actually started there as squatters. It was built in 1997 to house the World University Games, but no one ever even used it and it just laid there growing moss and going derelict. But Mancuso was pretty sure that he wanted this to be his home turf. So from when the club was first formed in 2006 all the way up to 2012...

The club was essentially squatters, just being there illegally, playing, training, without the consent of the authorities or the police or anyone, much less the mafia. On April 25th, 2012, which was uncoincidentally 32 years to the day after Italy was liberated from fascism, Mancuso moved everybody into the Sant'Eodoro and declared it to be their official home. Paperwork be damned.

Giuseppe Consolo was exactly the kind of kid the club was aiming at. He was a 13-year-old from Labrino and he was kind of getting wound up in some of the darker sides of the neighbourhood's activities. In 2012, just after the club rocked up at the Sant'Eodoro, he was knocked off his moped and killed. No one truly knows what happens to him, but pretty much everyone in the club suspects it was to do with his activities in the Mafia.

To honor Giuseppe, Briganti named their clubhouse after him. It became kind of a focal point, a rallying point for the club to kind of cement their vision to try and buck the trend of the mafia and the organized crime that was taking over Labrino at the time.

But the Giuseppe Consolo Clubhouse, that's just one small part of the whole Sant'Edoro complex. You've got the field and you've got the playing areas, of course, but you've also got these giant hangers, like air hangers. One of them's got a gym in it. Another one's got a cafe. There's a bar. There's a learning area. There's a library for kids. It's really like a holistic neighborhood spot that all the kids can come to. But above all, they can be safe and they have someone to look out for them and look after them.

Over the coming years, the club grew and grew and hundreds of young kids from the local neighborhood were getting involved in becoming brigands against organized crime. But that wasn't the end of the club's war against the mafia. At midnight on January 11th, 2018, a blaze broke out in the Giuseppe Consolo clubhouse, destroying almost everything inside.

Authorities never officially connected the fire to the Cosa Nostra, who rely heavily on arson as an intimidation tactic. But to Briganti, there was a clear message from the mob. We run Labrino. They want to show their power. When they burned down here, they wanted to say, we are here, this is us. They know that we take from the streets the guys that could be their workers.

The following morning, everyone showed up to train. Players, staff and their families. And the place was a wreck. But rather than sit around or feel sorry for themselves, Briganti did, I guess, what Briganti do best, and that's just carry on playing. So we must react. The day after the fire, we did the after school on the stairs and they did the training. They ran drills. They just kind of...

carried on through, which is what they've done ever since they were first founded. There was a huge response from outside the club in the rugby world. Clubs from Ireland and Australia and New Zealand and England and France, they all came together, stumping up the cash and the gear to build Briganti back up from the ashes.

There's been equipment stolen. Someone fired a bullet into the door of the clubhouse. In 2021, someone came over to the Briganti clubhouse and they torched the club bus that was sitting behind the place at the time. The club have still kept the burnt out tire marks from that incident so that everyone can see just what it means to be a brigand. It's just an ongoing fight against organized crime in Labrino and it's not going to stop anytime soon.

The players feel so strongly about their club these days that they actually put in night shifts to guard the Santiago every night. So they will go in groups of three or four at a time and they'll stay there all the way through the night, guarding the doors, making sure no one's coming in to torch the place or to threaten them or to steal equipment or even steal the AstroTurf that they've built their new field out of, which actually happened pretty recently.

These young guys are Briganti through and through. They've been there for years. They've seen the best of it, the worst of it, and they're determined to kind of push it to the next level. And that's not just behind the scenes or as a social outreach program. They actually want to be good on the field. They're trying to move up the leagues. They want to be a part of the higher, even semi-pro or professional leagues in Italy. They've certainly got the whole of the local neighborhood behind them. So the sky's the limit. Someone who will try to...

We resisted and we continue, but nothing is eternal. So we don't know, maybe something will put us in the situation that we cannot continue. But for now, we are winning. This club means so, so much more to its players and their family and the whole community than just a bunch of guys turning up on a Saturday or a Sunday to play rugby.

Briganti is part of Labrino now. It's just become such a lifeline for kids who have grown up in poor or even violent families associated with organized crime. I mean, it's impossible to get away from the sort of crime that's on the streets in this area. There's people dealing drugs everywhere. Violent clashes between rival gangs pretty much every other day. And Briganti is a safe haven. More than one player described it to me as their happy place.

One of the most interesting guys I met while I was in Catania was one of the first men's team players called Alessio Panabianco. He's this squat, really muscular, really cool, talented player. But he also has this really piercing stare and a way of speaking really passionately about the club. And it's not surprising given that he's grown up just a couple blocks away from the Santiago de Oro.

I wasn't born here, but I grew up here and I started playing rugby at the age of 12. I didn't know about rugby before I started with Briganti.

And he feels like such a huge responsibility. He's one of these young generation and he wants to teach the younger kids. He takes training there all the time. I mean, there literally isn't a day where this guy isn't down at the club, either teaching young people how to play rugby or hanging out at the library or just like messing about with his friends. Here's one thing he told me. Of course, I can say also my parents are

have a part, but the 80% of what I am today is the Briganti. I imagine my life very dark without light. The Briganti are the light. Sean Williams wrote the story, The Land is Ours and Nobody Can Touch It, which appears in the magazine and on SI.com. You can also listen to him on the Underworld podcast. We'll have a link in our show notes.

After a break, we take a look back at Urban Meyer's no good, very bad time as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.