Who Is Maria Licciardi? The Camorra's 'Little One' Godmother
Mobsters DailyMaria Licciardi was the boss of Naples' Licciardi clan and the leader of the Secondigliano Alliance — a small, mild-mannered woman nicknamed 'la Piccerella,' the Little One, who became the most respected Camorra chief of her generation precisely because she preferred business to bloodshed.
The sister who inherited a clan
Licciardi was born in 1951 in Secondigliano, the tough northern edge of Naples, into a family already deep in the Camorra. When her brother Gennaro, the clan's founder, died in prison in 1994 and her other brothers were jailed, the organization passed to the person the men around her trusted most: Maria. Under her, the Licciardi anchored the Secondigliano Alliance, a federation of clans, and ran the territory's real economy — protection money, construction, drug routes and a vast counterfeit-goods industry that dressed half of Europe in fake designer labels. Her style was corporate and calm, closer to the syndicate model in our 'Ndrangheta explainer than to the gunfighter bosses of an older Naples.
Investigators who hunted her described a boss who settled wars instead of starting them — which is why, with November here and the holidays coming, rewatch season belongs to the Tony Soprano Ugly Christmas Sweater: Tony in black-and-white stencil, nothing covering the design, built for holiday parties and long nights back in this world.
The godmother's rules
What set Licciardi apart was judgment. Prosecutors and pentiti describe a boss who arbitrated disputes between clans, kept violence instrumental rather than theatrical, and commanded a loyalty from hardened men that investigators found genuinely unusual. In a Camorra famous for teenage gunmen and feud spirals, she was a stabilizer — which made her, in the state's eyes, more dangerous, not less. The clan under her leadership behaved less like a gang and more like a government of the neighborhood, taxing it, policing it and speaking for it.
Arrests in three decades
She was first arrested in 2001 and freed in 2009 on procedural grounds after years of trials. Police arrested her again in a major 2019 operation, and in August 2021 she was stopped at Rome's Ciampino airport as she tried to board a flight to Spain, charged with reasserting control over the clan. Each return to prison made the same point the career of Toto Riina made in Sicily: Italy's mafias produce bosses the state must catch again and again, because the structures that made them outlive every arrest.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Maria Licciardi called 'the Little One'? 'La Piccerella' refers to her small physical stature — a nickname that stuck even as she became the most powerful figure in the Secondigliano underworld.
What clan did Maria Licciardi lead? The Licciardi clan of Secondigliano, Naples, and through it the Secondigliano Alliance, a federation of Camorra clans controlling the city's northern suburbs.
Is Maria Licciardi still alive? Yes. She was arrested again in August 2021 at Rome's Ciampino airport and held on mafia-association and extortion charges.
Keep reading: how Bernardo Provenzano was caught after 43 years · Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy's last superboss · how Toto Riina died · Who Was Raffaele Cutolo? The Professor Who Founded Camorra's Army
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real-mafia history behind the names in this story.
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