<div></DIV><P class=AIDescription style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B>More ruthless than the Mob, more powerful than the Camorra—a searing insider account of the Calabrian Mafia </B></P><P class=AIDescription style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B></B> </P><P class=AIDescription style="BORDER-TOP-COLOR: ; BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: ; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: ; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: ">A massive bestseller in its native Italy, and a book that can justly be compared with Roberto Saviano's <I>Gomorrah</I>, <I>Blood Ties</I> is a terrifying account of the 'Ndrangheta's criminal activities over the last four decades. Originally from Calabria, this sinister organization has—like the Mafia in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples—a vicious hold over northern Italy and much of the rest of the country, too, a stranglehold that is growing every day. Told to the authors by an insider, Pippo di Bella, a "pentito," a former member of the gang now turned state's evidence, it reveals many hitherto unknown operations, as well as throwing new light on well-known cases from the past. It shows an organization which retains and strengthens its position through corruption, drug smuggling, gun running, violence, extortion, and kidnapping. Visceral, compelling, and terrifyingly readable, it paints a brutally vivid picture of the most dangerous and powerful of the Italian mafias, and demands to be read.