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With a shaved head and a trimmed beard, a tall man in a black T-shirt with the Croatian soccer team's logo adjusts his shot under the discreet lens of undercover gendarmes. It is a beautiful day, this Tuesday afternoon in June 2019, in the region around Cannes.

In Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes), it's time for pétanque (a popular French game with metal balls, also known as boules). Domenico, the shooter, loves the warm atmosphere of the club de la Boule amicale sportive. They tease each other. They laugh. The youngest compete with the oldest. Sometimes, after a successful competition, the best players have the honor of seeing their name appear in Nice-Matin.

Everyone here knows "Domi," 38, son of Serafino, grandson of Girolamo and nephew of Antonio. The Magnolis and their cousins, the Stanganellis and the Giovinazzos, arrived in the region three generations ago, when the famous pottery workshops in the area were hiring in droves.

The Vallauris city hall and its pétanque court, behind the row of shrubs, on April 8, 2022.
The Vallauris city hall and its pétanque court, behind the row of shrubs, on April 8, 2022. SARAH MAGE POUR « LE MONDE »
Domenico Magnoli is the discreet type. He lives frugally, drives a Twingo and has worked since 2016 as a night watchman, with a monthly salary of 1,500 euros. He takes care of his two children, of whom he has joint custody. He lives in Valbonne, a little higher up in the Alpes-Maritimes department. He knows everyone there. He is a people person, liked by everyone. During the 2020 municipal elections, the campaign team of socialist senator and former mayor of Valbonne Marc Daunis even asked him to rally voters.

There aren't many days when "Domi" doesn't stop to greet another of his uncles, also named Girolamo. Girolamo owns La Petite Brasserie in Vallauris, a bar with a black sign located a few blocks from the center, between a pizzeria and the fire station. Domenico is a regular there. When he says he goes "to the bar," it's as if there is no other bar in the area. He normally drinks a coffee and is on his way. From time to time, he sits down for a game of cards, checks on the family or chats with the community's gardener, a faithful customer. A few words of Italian sometimes slip out. Even though Domenico Magnoli was born in Cannes, the family roots are in Rosarno, in Calabria: at the tip of the boot, so to speak.

The front of La Petite Brasserie, in Vallauris, cited in the 
The front of La Petite Brasserie, in Vallauris, cited in the "Ponente Forever" file, on April 8, 2022. SARAH MAGE POUR « LE MONDE »
On closer inspection, the attachment that the Vallauris pétanque players have to their land of origin is not just a matter of nostalgia. It is nourished by other alliances and business relationships of a particular kind. According to criminal investigations carried out in Italy, this small Franco-Italian colony is in fact linked to one of the main clans of the powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. The clan in question is the Piromalli-Molè, the historical "masters" of the port of Gioia Tauro. This port is the epicenter of trafficking, a few kilometers from Rosarno. According to the transalpine police, the Magnoli have long since pledged their allegiance to the Piromalli-Molè, to the point of having made Vallauris a sort of French link of the "parent company." An unpublished investigation, conducted on both sides of the border, helps to better decipher these links: the "Ponente Forever" case, so named in reference to the Riviera that links Genoa to the French border.

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