Hundreds of suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful mafia group, will face a judge this week as the country’s biggest “maxi-trial” of the past three decades gets underway. The trial against the crime syndicate and its accomplices — among them politicians, civil servants, police and white-collar businessmen — is expected to last more than two years. With 355 defendants, over 900 prosecution witnesses and 400 lawyers, the trial also features an unprecedented 58 state witnesses ready to break their code of silence, or “omerta”, and expose the clan’s long-buried secrets. Held inside a specially outfitted building in the heart of ‘Ndrangheta territory in Calabria, Italy’s poorest region, the trial beginning Wednesday targets just one group, the Mancuso family and its affiliates. During a recent hearing, it took three hours to read the names of the defendants, which include boss Luigi Mancuso, “The Uncle” — who spent nearly 20 years in prison before going underground — and dozens of others with nicknames straight out of Hollywood, like “The Wolf”, “Fatty”, “Sweetie”, “Blondie”, “Little Goat”, and “The Wringer”.