Mafia, “hands-on-mass” operation in 9 regions: 91 arrests. The examining magistrate: “Clans ready to exploit the Covid crisis”. The Acquasanta and Arenella clans strike

We are ready to exploit the crisis generated by the Covid emergency: lend usury money, take an interest in companies on the brink of crisis, offer “help”, even food, to the unemployed and perhaps joining new followers. This aspect must also be considered in the maximum operation of the Palermo Financial Police that arrested 91 of bosses, wingmen, extortionists and figures of two historical clans of Palermo. The bombing, coordinated by the Palermo DDA led by Francesco Lo Voi, hit the clans of theHoly Water and ofArenella The exponents of historical families of the palermitana mafia as those of the gods ended up handcuffed Ferrante and gods Source. The disputed charges are in various capacities of gangster association, extortion, fictitious asset registration, receipt of stolen property, money laundering, drug trafficking, sports fraud and scam.

From drugs to public procurement and horse racing: The investigation, which breaks the affairs of two prominent “families” of Cosa Nostra Palermitana, revealed the interests of the clans in the contracts and orders for works carried out in the shipyards of Palermo, in the activities of fruit and vegetable market, in the management of online bets and slot machines, as well as in that “History” of drug trafficking and horse racing. The list of companies subject to the lace racket is very long. Assets worth around 15 million euros were also seized. The operation is underway in Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Marche and Campania. 500 men from the Yellow Flames are engaged, supported by an airplane and trained dogs to search for weapons, drugs and money.

“Forms of prodromic gangster help to recruit followers” – With firm activities for the emergency shutdown, In a dramatic economic crisis, the companies on the verge of closing the gangsters were ready to act. The preliminary investigations judge, p.iergiorgio Morosini, who ordered the arrests, speaks of “a very favorable context for the reactivation of the plans of the criminal association in the territory of origin and beyond.” The painted image, not the result of the forecast according to the researchers and researchers, but based on the research data, it’s alarming.

“The measures of social distancing and the blockade throughout the national territory, imposed by government measures to contain the epidemic, have led to the total interruption of many production activities, destined, at some point, to serving a method of resuming work, however stunted and exhausting, as a minimum, writes the judge, due to the multiple health precautions that must be taken in the places of production. On the one hand, the current condition of extreme need even for food for many people without stable employment, or with a job in the underground economy, can help forms of prodromic gangster help to recruit new followers“

Activity block occasion for wear, recycling and extortion – “On the other hand, the blocking of the activities of many commercial establishments or small and medium-sized companies, he explains, caused a liquidity crisis difficult to reverse for numerous productive realities, in relation to which ‘interested support’ could manifest itself in the typical actions of the criminal organization, namely usury, recycling, fictitious registration of assets, which are likely to evolve towards forms of extortion or, in any case, the complete elimination of the companies of the original owner“

“With the liquidity crisis affecting businessmen and merchants – Judge Morosini concludes – the members of the mafia organization could intervene fund their illicitly accumulated capital to practice usury and then take over assets and companies with extortion measures, thus altering free competition among economic operators in the area and weakening the protection mechanisms of worker-employees. “

The clans had moved their businesses to Milan. For some time the brothers Angelo, Giovanni and Gaetano Fontana, they live in Milan, where they moved the center of their business and launder dirty money for extortion, drug trafficking, and gambling control. Investigators talk about one actual relocation north that the “family” has achieved thanks to a network of accomplices and accumulated wealth.

Business conducted without intimidation, “with acsilent but no less insidious contamination to the connective tissue of the national economy, in terms of altering free competition, weakening worker protections and exposing institutions to corruption, “writes the investigating judge.

The relocation operation concerns various commercial activities, including the production and trade of coffee, with a transfer of companies from Palermo to Milan, which has enjoyed the complicity of Lombard businessmen. Investigators also raise the alarm about imob interference in rapid distribution and general aid and credits for businessmen and commercial operators, to promote economic recovery and which, to be economic, should limit preventive controls by public administrations and credit institutions on potential beneficiaries.

“Accelerating access to credit support measures, primarily entrusted to applicants’ sense of responsibility and equity. – writes the investigative magistrate – could attract members of the mafia organization to unscrupulous maneuvers by funding proven relational networks, with businessmen, public officials and agents of compliant credit institutions, to activate fraudulent maneuvers able to improperly intercept public money“

Purchase of purebred horses to launder dirty money – There is also sports fraud and money laundering through the purchase of purebred foals in the investigation. Cosa nostra invests in the horse racing sector and would have manipulated races on racetracks in Turin, Villanova d’Albenga, Siracusa, Milan and Modena. In particular, from the investigation, which also led to the seizure of 12 horses, it became known that the gang man in the horse racing world was Mimmo Zanca, already arrested in the past and in charge of managing the combine within the race tracks, corrupting and threatening those who opposed it. Investments also include gaming and gambling, the true frontier of the organized crime economy. The magistrates talk about the real rush toHoarding “game points” and widespread betting rooms in the territory and they collect sports bets or online bets. Bets are handled illegally and through the exclusive use of cash. The heads of the Fontana and Ferrante families form a cartel and destroy the competition. “All this, says the judge, according to reports of mutual benefit, since Cosa Nostra can count on serious and obedient ‘professionals’ and these in a protection network that protects them from common commercial risks.”

The Fontana brothers’ luxury watch business – The Fontana brothers, along with their mother and other suspects, had established a profitable commercial activity in Milan to trade luxury watches, through Italian and foreign companies managed through nominees: money in rivers and laundering of dirty money thanks to the complicity of a Milanese accountant. In an interception, one of the suspects advised Chief Giovanni Fontana. buy a company in England for only 150 euros, thus guaranteeing the possibility of accessing a large number of current accounts. The conversation talks about transfers of tens of thousands of euros from London.

The repentant Vito Galatolo He told prosecutors: “My cousin Angelo Fontana, Stefano’s son, his brother Gaetano and Giovanni are the same, in the sense that they have everything in common, he in Milan manages everything at the level; economically at the level of watches, brilliant buys, sells, sends his brother to Palermo, does business with other jewelers. “” I remember that many watches were sold abroad – added Galatolo – particularly in Germany where they were recycled with special punchesAnd, telling him about a figurehead, he explained: “Instead, they made him open a jewelry store, but with Fontana’s money, it’s a market there … also because they also work … they bring watches, they steal things , they take them … in Frankfurt, Germany “.”
Statements unintentionally confirmed by the boss Giovanni Fontana in an interception: “Do you know why I am selling the watches to him? … each week brings me thirty thousand .. fixed! Because you know that Friday, Tuesday comes to bring me twice! The former and the later! “This is the day … you earn two thousand euros a day, a thousand me, a thousand Gaetano, I am earning twenty thousand euros a month, just my share. Angelo more! … Angelo travels … a hundred thousand euros a month ago! “

Racket hits but few report – The extortions that remain among the mafia’s main source of economic supply continue to spread. “You are not alone a hateful and very serious form of parasitic exploitation from the economic initiatives of others. – stresses the judge – We are talking about a true ‘private tax’, a ‘method’ that imposes products, which allows you to control every activity in the territory (bakeries, bars, game agencies, fruit and vegetable markets, shipyards) and which supports mafia families when they are in prison. “Unfortunately, in the face of a considerable number of documented extortion requests and acts of intimidation, which obviously represent only a part of what actually took place, the victims, with the exception of some sporadic cases, did not file a complaint“Says the magistrate.

And the freed chief said, “I have no mercy on anyone.” The names that ended up in the Palermo financial investigation have been known to investigators for decades. Like the Fontana, the historic “family” of the Cosa Nostra in Palermo described by the repentant Tommaso Buscetta as one of the most dangerous. The investigations revealed the main role of Gaetano Fontana, sjailed for expiration of terms in 2013 From the mafia charge, he returned to his cell in 2014 and was released again in 2017 after serving his sentence. Today the brothers were also arrested: Giovanni, a long list of precedents for receive stolen property, murder, illegal gun port and resistance to public officialsand Angelo, since 2012 subject to the obligation to stay in Milan.

For investigators, Gaetano Fontana would be the undisputed reference point for Acquasanta’s “picciotti,” a role he would have held even while in detention. La Fontana managed the companies that operate in the shipbuilding, in the production and marketing of coffee, and would have control of dozens of supermarkets, bars and butchers, and the fruit and vegetable market, online gambling and slot machines. The brothers Gaetano, Giovanni and Angelo Fontana had long lived in Milan, but have maintained strong interests in the Sicilian capital. Another important research character is Giovanni Ferrante, operating arm of the Fontana clan.

Ferrante used neighborhood businesses to launder dirty money, ordered extortion, and demanded the purchase of raw materials and consumer goods chosen by the organization. Already convicted of mafia, since 2016 he has been admitted to trial assignment to social services. After he was released from prison, he consolidated his position as a leader within the mafia family and used his partner, Letizia Cinà, as an intermediary to manage illicit affairs. Much feared, violent, in an interception after being released from prison, he says: “For now I have no more pity for anyone! Before slapping them, now I hit them; with helmet shots … what I have in my hand … what comes to me. “Ferrante spoke in a low voice with other honorable men from the window of the cell of the Ucciardone prison where he was incarcerated. Other Mafia suspects, it turns out, generally spoke to Ferrante: “Today I went to see my partner,” says a man of honor referring to the Mafia boss. With his hand, he looked out. Okay, did you tell him okay? “

Another prominent character is Domenico Passarello, which was delegated the management of remote gambling and gambling, drug trafficking, cash management and subsequent delivery of money to the top of the family for common cash payment.

Among the suspected former Big Brother competitors – Among the suspects is a former Big Brother competitor: Daniele Santoianni participated in the tenth edition of the reality show and is now under house arrest on charges of be a figurehead. Santoianni had been appointed legal representative of Mok Caffè S.r.l., a company that traded coffee, in fact in the gang’s availability. “With this – the magistrate writes – feeding the cash of the Acquasanta family and facilitating the activity of the mafia association.”