From sex slaves to drug mules, The Daily Beast's Rome Bureau Chief uncovers a terrifying and intricate web of criminal activity right on Europe’s doorstep.
Chasing the money from kidnapped Nigerian hair braiders to ISIS gunrunners, this is the story of modern slavery in Europe and how the plight of those most in need is being wilfully disregarded. Caught between Camorra arms dealers and Nigerian drug gangs along Italy’s attractive coast, each year thousands of refugees and migrants are lured into their murky underworld. In this powerful exposé, investigative journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau follows the weapons trail, meets the sex-trafficked women trapped by black magic, the nuns who try to save them and the Italian police who turn a blind eye as the most urgent issues facing Europe play out in broad daylight.
Barbie Latza Nadeau is an American journalist in Rome, working for Newsweek, The Daily Beast and CNN. For more than two decades she has covered crime in Europe, Italian politics, the Vatican, the refugee crisis and women’s issues. Her previous book about the murder trials of Amanda Knox, Angel Face (2010), was adapted for film (The Face of an Angel, 2015), starring Kate Beckinsale as a journalist based on Barbie herself. Barbie Latza Nadeau is an American journalist in Rome, working for Newsweek, The Daily Beast and CNN. For more than two decades she has covered crime in Europe, Italian politics, the Vatican, migration, the refugee crisis and women’s issues. Her previous book about the murder trials of Amanda Knox, Angel Face (2010), was adapted for film by Michael Winterbottom (The Face of an Angel, 2015), starring Kate Beckinsale as a journalist based on Barbie herself.
Table of Contents
Maps xi
Preface xiii
Introduction: Setting the Compass 1
1 Rescued, Then Captured 15
2 Nuns in the Land of Fire 43
3 Madams and the Black Magic JuJu Curse 73
4 Italy's DNA: God, Girls and the Mafia 97
5 Massacres and Alliances 119
6 Kalashnikovs and Bodies Under the Mattresses 145
7 The Way Forward 171
Cast of Characters 201
To Help 211
Acknowledgments 215
Notes 217
What People are Saying About This
—Tina Brown
“Barbie Latza Nadeau takes you on an exhilarating ride through Italy's dark
underbelly. She shines a stark light on a grimy world populated by Nigerian
druglords, Italian maffiosi, dirty cops and voodoo doctors — as well as an unlikely
hero, the fearless Sister Rita. An incredibly thorough, alarming and highly
readable piece of investigative journalism.”
—Michael Winterbottom
“Barbie Latza Nadeau dissects the intricate relationship between those who
make a living from organized crime, terrorism and sex trafficking with an astute
understanding of the Italian culture that allows it to prosper. The book takes you
through the seedy world of prostitutes and their clients, introduces you to nuns
and saviors and exposes one of Italy's darkest secrets.”
—Colin Firth
“This is a terrifying and heartbreaking book. So many of the world’s most
alarming issues converge on one street to the south of Naples: enforced
prostitution (slavery), human trafficking and the refugee crisis, the Mafia, the
drug and arms trade and Jihadi terrorism. Nadeau connects them, showing us a
vast, organised economic system and everything required to maintain it: a
willingness to exploit desperation, unimaginable brutality and, crucially, the
indifference of the “clients," the authorities … and the rest of us. And then she
introduces us to the girls themselves - and to the extraordinary women who try
to help them, their compassion pervading the entire story. I will find it difficult,
from now on, to contemplate today’s world without thinking about what goes on
