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The operation of the Etna financial police, with the collaboration and support of Scico, led to 18 arrests and the discovery of a cauldron made up of warrants issued by the jail, extortion and strong interference in the procedures for the sale of assets at auction. “Denunciation”, as the operation is called, led to the arrest of members of the Laudani Santapaola clan for criminal association of the mafia type, extortion, usury, interruption of auctions, personal complicity, possession and carrying of firearms.
Operation “Report”
At the same time, the preventive seizure was carried out, for a total value of one million euros, of the shares and corporate assets of “Friscus srl”, a company that operates in the transport logistics sector, whose ownership was fictitiously registered with name of a front man of the clan, in order to avoid patrimonial investigations.
The hands of the mafia in judicial auctions – Video
The names of those arrested
The investigation involved 37 people: the apex was Orazio Scuto, known as the glazier, regent of the Laudani clan for the Acese area and currently detained in Caltanissetta. Although he was behind bars, he continued to send his orders through “pizzini” hidden in packets of fruit juices or chocolate bars and which were taken out of the prison with the help of Valentina Scuto. The proven communication system has allowed the man to issue directives to his closest collaborators abroad, both for the management of Friscus and for some initiatives to be undertaken in the context of criminal activities attributable to the group.
Video | Interceptions
The benchmark in the area was Litterio Messina: in particular, he was responsible for coordinating the various episodes of extortion against businessmen in Catania carried out by members of the clan. The Laudanis were very active in extortion, but also in bankruptcy enforcement proceedings. In detail, in the course of the investigations, first 8 episodes were found
extortion, in some cases carried out by members of the clan to the detriment of businessmen and professionals to finance the association while, in other circumstances, members of the criminal association acted to unlawfully favor businessmen, who – in the face of commercial credits did not paid – they preferred, instead of proceeding legally, to resort to the intermediation of mafia exponents to recover the sums. So it was the entrepreneurs themselves who requested the intervention of the clan to recover their credit.
The other sector involved in investigative activities is represented by interference in judicial procedures for the auction of goods. In this context, individuals belonging to or close to the Laudani clan intervened, on several occasions, so that businessmen declared bankrupt – against whom the real estate foreclosure procedure had been activated – could illegally recover the property put up for auction, even obtaining the margins of benefit. In this context, members of the Laudani clan acted, resorting to threats and intimidation, in order to inhibit the participation of potential bidders in the execution procedure, thus guaranteeing that the executed debtor obtains, even through fictitious owners, the return of the goods.
In this context, one of the investigated episodes concerned a property auction proceeding carried out in the Catania court. On this occasion, a businessman, owner of an apartment subject to bankruptcy, requested and obtained the intervention of Litterio Messina, in order to alter the procedure for the sale of the property. On that occasion, the group identified a compliant front man and, at the same time, fired potential bidders through the use of intimidation and threats. Thus, the buyers of the foreclosed property were forced by threats to resell the property, at a base price, to the debtor who had sought and obtained the clan’s intervention.
During the investigations, other crimes committed by exponents of the Santapaola clan against Catania businessmen were also highlighted. In particular, the investigations highlighted the extortions of Salvatore Mazzaglia and Mirko Pompeo Casesa, who demanded that businessmen active in the territory of Catania and the province pay a periodic sum of money to guarantee the safety of the works.
In addition, the investigations revealed an important availability of weapons of the members of the mafia organization, which were used in the realization of violent episodes and intimidation. Of particular importance, in this context, was the figure of Giacomo Cageggi (alias “the boxer” or “Rocky”), a reference to the Laudani clan for Lineri and Misterbianco, several times the protagonist of punitive armed expeditions and intimidation against rival clans.
