Her grandmother was a delicious, tender, loving woman. With her white apron tied around her waist, she prepared the richest sweets in the world in her hot kitchen in Milan, Italy.

But behind that charming image is hidden a bad stories. A story involving weapons, violence and drug trafficking. Is that her grandmother, Maria Serrainoin addition to being Signora María, is the “Who is it heroin “. KAHIT “mother cocaine “.

In that world of dirty money (and in excess), excessive power and permanent bodyguards have grown Marisa Merico (52)the woman, under the age of 20, took over the family business and replaced her father, Emilio DiGiovineone of the capos of the ‘Ndrangheta, the most powerful mafia in the south of the country.

Ang au pair falling in love

Patricia Riley, Marisa’s mother, has no idea what life will bring to her. He was almost out of his youth and decided to spend a year as au pair in Milan at the end of the busy decade of the ’60s. The maiden was born blackpoolGreat Britain and wants to enjoy that adventure.

There destiny met him with Emilio, María’s son. It was love at first sight, one of the inevitable.

it happens na Madam Maria – cousin of Paolo Serraino, head of the Calabrian branch of ‘Ndrangheta – settled in that northern city in 1963 with her entire family.

The couple bonded quickly and were together they have Marisawho was born at the same table in the kitchen of the apartment in Praça de Prealpi where her grandmother gave birth to her children.

Together, the three of them remained in Italy until the late 1970s, when Marisa was 9 years old and her mother began to fear the criminal lifestyle led by her husband’s family. At that moment, decided to return to his native Blackpool.

The photo is shocking. There you see the grandmother lying on the bed and a little Marisa holding a gun from his father in one hand and wrist in the other.

Holidays in Italy

But every summer the maiden returns to her hometown. And on these visits where he was with his grandmother and his father, when he started to see that a lot of drugs came into the family home, he said. The mirror.

Although I can’t read or write, Who is it the mind behind the crimeordered as Emilio and other members of the group classified the packages of heroin and cocaine.

During these meetings, an adolescent Marisa was dazzled by the emotions of her grandmother’s life: a powerful woman in the world of menhighlights in the middle.

“What my father did would not work without my grandmother. My grandmother was a very strong character, ”he said.

It is on 1987during his vacation Marisa met Bruno Mericoa sidekick for Emilio, who would later become his wife and for whom he had his first daughter, Lara, who is now 30 years old.

The relationship with her mother is not good, and if the maiden is missing something to leave the cold and boring British city where she lives, it is a boyfriend. So it certainly is at the age of 17, he settled in Italy.

“My mother and I were constantly fighting. Blackpool is a town of cattle and sheep, while Milan is a charming city, where he has a big and noisy family, full of hugs and laughter, far from the cold of Britain. I always had attention from everyone, especially from my grandmother ”, he told a few years ago to The country.

Luxury, redundancy and danger

In making that decision, the maiden has no idea that she is entering the heart of one of the empires weapons, drugs and money laundering largest in the world at the time.

Everything he wants, he has. He lived luxuriously, he was always on the move surrounded by bodyguards and guards, he was allowed to enter everywhere he wanted.

On April 11, 1991, the day of his married to Bruno, the murderers appeared looking for his father. He did not attend the ceremony, he was a fugitive. Due to the presence of the police at the scene, a possible real catastrophe was averted.

It happens that the mafia war he moved from Calabria to Milan, where the families controlling the city sided with one of two sides: the Imerti-Condello-Serraino family or the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri family.

“We are rich, yes, but what I want the love and respect of my family”, He said in the British edition of People. But not everyone is pink.

So when his father was imprisoned, he, at 22, he took over the business. Reports at the time say she often visited him in jail, where no one suspected her because she was a woman.

From that place, the two together dedicated themselves to plan moves what the clan must do to continue to reaffirm its power.

First, she started by washing the money she was carrying in a corset without anyone checking on her; then he devoted himself to delivering packages. And as he strengthened his command to the ‘Ndrangheta, he advanced towards increasingly dangerous operations.

All, as he admitted, to show his father that he could take the place that the son had never taken that he had never taken.

at 23, back to england and bought a home furnished with designer furniture funded by his ill-gotten gains that were nearly worth it $ 2.5 milliondescriptive The mirror.

Under the worst criminal world, Marisa also had to take care of her son and deal with the worse her husband’s severe addiction to cocaine.

Every day, it became harder to control the business. The police closely guarded him, the situation could not be maintained. In addition, Margherita Di Giovine, known as Rita, one of her aunts, was arrested and confessed everything to the authorities.

Marisa needed to escape to england.

There where they arrested him. It was 1994 and he was discovered trying to launder approximately 2 million euros from drug trafficking. He was raided by police at dawn. His daughter was taken from him and he spent nearly four years in Durham maximum security prison, along with the likes of assassins Rose West.

After some time, he was extradited to Italy, where he was behind bars. However, his defense was able to prove a legal error in procedure and he was acquitted in 1998.

While still incarcerated, he decided to divorce Bruno. While in prison, he met Frank, the father of his second child, who had been arrested for armed robbery.

Six months after his release, in April 2000, killed frank for computation. Marisa seems to be three months pregnant. The country.

life after the mob

From that moment on, Marisa spent the rest of her life far from great wealth which I enjoyed. She even had to clean houses to live with her children.

In 1997, a year after his release, his grandmother was arrested. Moments later, in 2014, she was finally reunited with her and her father.

Marisa saw Maria several more times before she died at the age of 86 in 2017. “It was one of the saddest moments of my life.. I am his favorite grandson. He seemed to be sleeping but he squeezed my hand. His last words were: ‘Be a good woman’“he said in agreement The mirror.

In her life of forgotten crime, Marisa currently resides in Poulton-le-Fylde, near Blackpool, and has planned to open an Italian restaurant on the coast of Lancashire with his father, who is 72 years old and trained as a chef after being released early for assisting the Police.

In addition, she is a grandmother, living with her partner, James (51), wrote her autobiography (which became bang bang babya series on Amazon) and received from criminologist.

“I am proud that I changed my life and now I am a criminologist. My education helped me understand why I did certain things. It’s my fault in a way because I know right from wrong, ”he explained to the British outlet.

And he detailed: “I beat myself up for years, but when I look at the big picture, I can see that I was a victim of circumstances and I was taken advantage of a lot. This is because I am honest and love my family. It’s not about money, power or a glamorous life. This is the love I have for my grandmother and my father”.

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