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In the late 1990s, he ran three supermarkets in Bagheria. Today, it has an empire in the large-scale distribution sector, in 2019 it developed a turnover of 80 million euros. Carmelo Lucchese, 55, ends up under indictment: investigations by the economic and financial police unit and the Palermo Prosecutor’s Office say he is a “businessman in collusion with organized crime.” For this reason, the Preventive Measures section of the Court ordered the seizure of its safe, the “Gamac group srl”, which manages 13 supermarkets between Palermo and the province, with the brands Conad and Todis (seven are in the city, the others between Bagheria, Carini, Bolognetta, San Cipirello and Termini Imerese). Financiers served the order this morning, activities will continue to run, managed by a court-appointed receiver. Seven properties in Pagliarelli, 61 bank accounts, 5 insurance policies and 16 cars were also seized, including two Porsche Macans.
Already in 2014, Sergio Flamia, a former head of the Bagheria family who became a collaborator with the justice system, had accused Lucchese of being close to the clan. But at that time those statements were not enough to initiate an investigation. Today are added the revelations of the last repentant mobster, Filippo Bisconti, former head of the Belmonte Mezzagno family. The Gico researchers then deeply reconstructed Lucchese’s sudden corporate rise. “It operated under the protective wing of Cosa Nostra”, the college chaired by Raffale Malizia now writes, welcoming the reconstruction of the prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, the deputy Marzia Sabella and the alternate Giovanni Antoci.
In Bagheria, the “king” of large-scale distribution would never have paid the protection money. And thanks to the help of the mafia in Bagheria, there would have been no increases in the “mafia tax” payable in the city for each point of sale. For the court, there is no evidence that Cosa Nostra’s money has ended up in the Lucchese companies, but the businessman is accused of having also turned to the bosses to get rid of some shareholders and outperform the competition. In 2005, he even set fire to a Bagheria supermarket that ran the risk of taking customers away. “An illicit relationship of mutual interest with organized crime”, defines Colonel Gianluca Angelini, commander of the economic and financial police unit in Palermo. When Bagheria’s mobsters were looking for a safe haven for superlatant Bernardo Provenzano, the large-scale retailer reportedly made an apartment available. “Even if it was not given – specified the repentant Flamia – but had offered his availability”.
Mafia, the confiscation of the builder Finocchio is final. Assets for 100 million go to the state
Around the Provenzano investigation is the most mysterious chapter in this entire story: it is still Flamia who tells us that a policeman from the Catturandi section of the Palermo mobile brigade would have reported news about the investigations in Lucchese, news that ended with the chiefs of Bagheria. “The policeman’s wife worked in one of the supermarkets,” added the repentant. According to the indictment, the businessman is a “socially dangerous subject”, he also allegedly hired relatives of the mafia, “in recognition – it is the accusation – of his decisive intervention at crucial moments in the path of commercial expansion.” For the prosecutor, Lucchese is the prototype of economic operators who continue to enrich themselves in the shadow of the clans. “Today’s operation – says General Antonio Quintavalle Cecere, provincial commander of the Guardia di Finanza – is part of a precise investigation strategy developed with the Palermo Prosecutor, to hit the mafia organization and free the legal economy against infiltration criminal, to protect the entrepreneurs who, even in this difficult period, operate according to the rules. “
Kidnapping
The supermarkets seized in Palermo are the Conad hypermarkets in corso Finoacchiaro Aprile 112 and viale Michelangelo 2200, the Todis in via Re Federico 20, corso Finoacchiaro Aprile 195 and via Capricorno 9; later, the Conads in via Argento 32 and via Sunseri 6. The Conad hypermarket located in Carini, on state highway 113, was also seized; the Conad in via Passo del Corretto 93, in Bagheria; Conad on State Highway 121, near Bolognetta; the Conad in the Bassetto district, in San Cipirello; the Todis in via Papa Giovanni XXIII, in Bagheria; Todis inside the Himera center of Termini Imerese.
