‘Ndrangheta, the city of Malpensa for thirty years in the hands of the same clan. Between murders, threats, silence and bought votes

A mayor arrested for corruption, a councilor accused of acting as a driver for the Calabrian chiefs, a councilor (for Culture) who, according to the newspapers, has earned his place on the council as a counterpart to a good package of votes. And then police and public officials willing to sell themselves, burning municipal officials’ cars, busted shutters, citizens terrified and strangled by extortion, usury, threats and abuse in the context of their economic activities. Not to mention the at least four mafia murders recorded in the 2000s. It’s the long black history of Lonate Pozzolo, in the province of Varese, the Municipality, together with Ferno, which has the intercontinental airport of Malpensa. The one taken on September 3 is another anti-mafia operation, with the arrest, among others, of two local police officers and an Anas officer accused of favoring the local mafia clan. That Lonate has featured the same names and faces for decades.

A Legnano to dominate Vincenzo Rispoli, definitely doomed as club director Legnano-Lonate Pozzolo, which has been in operation for thirty years. It is a great piece that was among the diners of the famous Lombard Ndrangheta summit at the Falcone e Borsellino club in Paderno Dugnano, immortalized in 2009 by the Crime-Infinite investigation bugs. Lonate it is instead the enmity of Mario Filippelli, so ruthless and exaggerated in ordering beatings and attacks on those who did not pay protection money or usury debts, that at a certain point Rispoli decided to kill him, entrusting the task to the cousin of the designated victim, Nicodemo Filippelli. The fear was that the planetary violence exerted by Mario in the small town would attract the attention of police and magistrates, until that moment even by the absolute distance. silence who reigned among the oppressed Lonatesi. Too late, in 2009 the operation began Bad boys who tore the veil of a fierce ‘Ndrangheta and mistress of the city of Malpensa, guarded in the main square by a large statue of Sant’Ambrogio.

Eight years after the first raid, many of the protagonists of that season were released from prison, except for Vincenzo Rispoli, who is still in prison today. And to avoid new conflicts, in 2017 the Calabrian restaurant referred to by the inhabitants of Legnano and Lonatesi, that of Farao-Marincola of Cirò Marina, in the province of Crotone. The plenipotentiary of the Calabrian capos, Giuseppe Spagnolo, resolved it in the following way: the Lonate center was assigned to Emanuele De Castro, from Palermo, but the historical right hand of Rispoli; the Sant’Antonino district, the popular heart of the Calabrian community, or rather Cirotana, for Mario Filippelli; the Cilidonio brothers were exiled from Ferno, a former municipality linked to Lonate, guilty of a sgarro (burned car) to people of respect.

De Castro, who had just gotten out of jail, was in charge of taking over the public premises of the district, he was left with the booming business of private parking at the service of airport passengers, generally vacant land, not even asphalted, transformed without large investments in laying hens. ‘gold. The Filippelli were guaranteed control of drugs and usury. The reorganization does not go unnoticed by investigators, and on June 20, 2019, the arrests of Operation Krimisi 1 are triggered, which also involves the Councilor of the Brothers of Italy, Enzo Misiani. It is the continuation of that investigation that we arrive at the last arrests of September 3, also favored by the fact that De Castro in the meantime decides to collaborate with the justice, followed by his son Salvatore. What had established the monopoly of the famous car parks: whoever wanted to open one was obliged to enter into partnership with him.

Among the many weapons seized from the clan by order of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, the seven kilos of Tutagex explosive is impressive. The clubs were kept in a shopping bag with a store logo on it: “Rispoli fruits and vegetables …”, Follow the address and telephone number of the resale property of Vincenzo Rispoli (a lightness that, as evidenced by the wiretaps of the Krimisi 2 acts, causes not a little family tension).

On the one hand, weapons, bombs, assassinations, beatings, loan sharks, extortion. In the other the local politics, that for at least twenty years it has ignored the oppressive presence of the ‘Ndrangheta in the territory, and in many cases it has gone hand in hand. Let’s start with the former mayor Danilo Rivolta, of Go Italy, whose car caught fire in 2009, after the same fate ran the car of a manager of the Technical Office of the Municipality. Elected in 2014 with the support of the center-right and Northern league, three years later he was arrested for corruption, extortion and other crimes, by order of the Busto Arsizio court. He is not accused of mafia. However, according to the Krimisi 2 ordinance, “not only was he linked to various suspects in the Bad Boys investigation (the 2009 one, ed), but his own choice is the result of the support of influential Calabrian families, and what It has happened, at least in part, it is a clear expression of the Cirotan families ”.

The magistrates cite (but not investigated) Francesca Federica De Novara, also elected to the council in 2014 and immediately promoted to councilor (Culture, Education and Youth Policies among the numerous delegations). Here is the family portrait reported by the newspapers: Alfonso Murano’s nephew, assassinated in 2006 – one of the many killed in the area due to internal conflicts’ Ndranghetistici – wife of the criminal Cataldo Malena, “believed to be close to De Castro’s groups and Filippelli “. After his arrest, Rivolta records that De Novara’s appointment “was the result of a prior agreement between him and the latter’s father, as a counterpart in exchange for a considerable number of votes”.

In the Krimisi investigation 1, another local politician ended up in prison, Enzo Misiano, which as a switchboard of the City Council had, in 2012, made the leap to the municipal council of Ferno, with the PDL, and then went to Fratelli d’Italia in 2015. According to the indictment, he was the driver with his Kia Sorento of Giuseppe Spagnolo, the plenipotentiary of the Farao-Marincola family sent to resolve the disputes of the ‘Ndrangheta in the Varese area. In the new papers we find Misiano who, shortly before being arrested, is working hard to obtain the necessary authorizations to transform the yard of a junkyard into a parking lot in Malpensa, in the interest of Mario Filippelli. Interest increased due to the fact that in the summer of 2020 the Milan Linate airport will be closed for works, and the hub will absorb flights and passengers.

On the phone with another local politician, Misiani assures that the next day a councilor from the province of Varese will be interested in the matter (yes, they still exist), Giuseppe De Bernardi Martignoni (not investigated), also from Giorgia Meloni’s party: “Tomorrow I will call Martignoni, I will tell Beppe the votes you wanted (…) I have the name of the person who takes care of these things in the Province, call him here and ask for this , this, this immediately. ”There is no trace of the announced phone call, also because the deal is fading due to resistance from the junkyard owner, who then suffers the usual dose of intimidation reserved for the citizens of Lonate and Ferno who they do not suit the interests of the clan.