the piromalli 'ndrina managed to condition the management of the new container terminal in the port of gioia tauro. established in the mid-1990s, it became the largest terminal in the mediterranean, moving over 2 million containers in 1998. since 1994, when contship italia rented the port area to start transhipment activity and the medcenter container terminal was set up thanks to 138 billion lire (about us$86 million) in state financing, the piromalli’s aimed to oblige the medcenter company, through its vice president walter lugli, and the contship company, through its president enrico ravano, to pay a kickback of us$1.50 for each transhipped container, a sum which corresponded to about half the net profits earned by the two companies.