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5.3 Ties to other criminality or other originsThe most usual affirmation regarding the traffic of women from Nigeria forsexual exploitation is that it is an organised traffic with an ethnic base which doesnot foresee the involvement of subjects belonging to other nationalities.Even if responding to the truth, this affirmation requires some explanation.The first regards the situation in the territories where Italian organised crime ispresent 60 . In this case, such as that which concerns only the Campania area, theNigerian groups (like those of other origins) are surely in a position ofsubordination and are held to respect some rules. In fact, the Camorra above alldefines where the women cannot prostitute themselves 61 and secondly, in somecases, it rents to the foreign criminals the territory where the women can prostitutethemselves: “To benefit from a territorial area where they can exploit their girls,the madams are obliged to pay a type of tax to the local organised crime which inthe morning for example, rents an area to the Nigerians, and in the afternoon tothe Albanians or vice versa and, in exchange receives payment of a ‘contribution’” (Central Operational Service, State Police - Rome).In the second place, there are those of Italian nationality, not necessarilybelonging to organised crimes who offer some services to the foreign organisation:they act as a figurehead for the rent or sale of apartments where they live or asintermediaries to buy cars that are then sent to Nigeria.In the areas where it is present, it is the Camorra in several cases which directlyrents the apartments or sells cars 62 . In other cases and in other areas it deals instead,with subjects mainly of Italian nationality normally small criminals, or otherwiseoperating illegally in adjoining areas. Often the apartment is found through a chainof sub-rents that make the cost of the apartment rise at each change, but it alsomakes it appear that the apartment is regularly rented by a real estate agency: inthis way everyone (from the ally of the Camorra, to the complaisant Italian, to themadam) earns money.“Our Camorra is getting organised, taking advantage, clearly it rents houses,sells cars, profiting from the surrounding activity ” (Questura of Caserta).Amongst the rewarding activities there is also that of the Italians who offerthemselves, against payment, as false employers or false husbands, so as toregularise the position of the madams in Italy.“For the madams we have noted that often they are persons who are legallymarried to an Italian who, however they have never seen again. The Italianmarried them and that is enough…only so as to be regularised. There are also fake60The Nigerian criminality seems to prefer territories where there is not a strong local criminality, withthe interesting exception of the area in Campania.61It is noted for example that the residential areas of the Camorra bosses should not be “infested” withactivities such as drugs or prostitution.62It should be noted that it is typical of local organised crime to profit from the legal or pseudo legalbusiness (rubbish collection and building).