12 Facts About Girolamo Piromalli

Girolamo Piromalli, known as Mommo, was an Italian criminal and member of the 'Ndrangheta.

Girolamo Piromalli was capobastone of the Piromalli 'ndrina based in his hometown Gioia Tauro on the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria.

Mommo Piromalli ruled the most powerful 'Ndrangheta group in the Gioia Tauro plain with his younger brother Giuseppe "Peppe" Piromalli.

Together with Antonio Macri from Siderno on the Ionic coast and Domenico Mico Tripodo, the boss of the city of Reggio Calabria and the surrounding areas, the Girolamo Piromalli brothers formed a sort of triumvirate since the beginning of the 1960s until the outbreak of the First 'Ndrangheta war in the mid-1970s.

Girolamo Piromalli said that this rank had been given him directly in Toronto, where there was a very important 'ndrina.

In 1973, Girolamo Piromalli was charged of heroin trafficking when an undercover operation by the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics targeting Saverio Mammoliti revealed that Mammoliti needed permission of Macri and "Don Mommo" Girolamo Piromalli.

Girolamo Piromalli lent his son the remaining $800,000 at four percent interest.

Girolamo Piromalli was arrested again in October 1975 in Rome, where he had a lunch meeting with Paolo De Stefano and Pasquale Condello.

Together with his brother Peppe Girolamo Piromalli, Mommo redirected the 'Ndrangheta clan from its rural base to an entrepreneurial criminal organisation assuming dominance over several public works in the Gioia Tauro area, particularly in the construction and operation of the new container seaport.

On February 11,1979, Mommo Girolamo Piromalli died of cirrhosis of the liver in a prison hospital in Gioia Tauro.

Girolamo Piromalli was succeeded as head of the clan by his younger brother Giuseppe "Peppe" Piromalli.

Girolamo Piromalli had contacts with Sicilian Mafiosi such as Angelo La Barbera and Stefano Bontate.