Modafferi 'ndrina

The Modafferi 'ndrina is a powerful clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation. The clan is based in Sydney but also controls important terrority in Melbourne and (post 1968) the New South Wales Riverina. The 'ndrina originally belongs to the locale of San Luca in Calabria, Italy.

History
In 1944, after the defeat of Italy in the second world war, Bruno Modafferi and Tolio Fiorini were released from the Cowra concentration camp to work in an arnaments factory in Lithgow due to the need for man power in Australian factories to fuel the war in the Pacific. The money wasn't good but it was an incentive to get recently released enemy alians back to work for the Australian war-effort. Bruno found himself overseeing the packaging of guns into creates bound for Sydney and was quick to discover that he could skim guns off each create while Fiorini altered the paperwork. Using an old mine outside Lithgow, they began a stockpile and by the end of the war they was ready to put their crime business back into operation.

Within months they had moved into stand-over and protection across Sydney and established a firm mark in the Sydney docks. In 1951, Bruno and Tolio travelled to the 'Ndrangheta locale of San Luca where they asked for the blessing to begin operations in Australia. Happy to have a strong connection outside Calabria, they received the blessing and returned to Australia to form the Modafferi 'ndrina. With the waves of Italian migrants arriving in Australia during the post-war boom the clan expanded greatly with dealings in standover, protection, money laundering, loan sharking and even into fruit and vegetable distribution.

In the mid 1950s, Bruno aligned with the Carpenter organisation which was lead by Ray Carpenter. Bruno also formed legitimate fronts to mask his huge criminal empire with companies in construction such as Modafferi Construction and Alovic Cranes. In the early 1960s, a branch was formed in Melbourne in which Bruno's eldest son Marius Modafferi took control over the Melbourne dockers union, extorting money from workers and taxing cargos. They also took a major slice of the Melbourne fruit and vegetable markets.

Allience with the Miot 'ndrina
In 1966, Marius Modafferi set up a meeting through Ray Alvarado to align Modafferi with the Miot 'ndrina who controlled marijuana cultivation in the NSW Riverina. After Bruno secured the deal to buy and distribute marijuana, he tasked his youngest son Giorgio to head up the Sydney side of the distribution operation while Marius took control of Melbourne distribution.