Bagheria, Brancaccio, Porta Nuova: mafia and drugs, 17 arrests THE BLITZ by Riccardo Lo Verso MARCH 23, 2023, 09:30 1' OF READING 0 Comments PALERMO – Drugs, especially cocaine, bought by the bosses of Brancaccio and Porta Nuova flooded the squares of Bagheria. An axis had been created between the three mafia mandates.
The carabinieri of the Palermo investigative unit arrested 17 people: nine in prison and 8 under house arrest. Four others are required to report to the judicial police.
The investigations by the Palermo Anti-Mafia District Directorate are the sequel to the "Persephone" blitz which in 2021 photographed the handover between Onofrio Catalano and the new head of the Bagheria mafia family Massimiliano Fricano.
And it is under the strict control of the mafia that the drug trade would have been managed.
The heart of the shop was the home of a family, the Salernos. A husband, wife and two children who had turned their home into a drug operations center were arrested.
The investigation confirms the cross-section of a mafia whose main source of income is drugs. Brancaccio and Porta Nuova remain among the busiest mandates in the sector. The contacts for the wholesale purchase would be two names well-known in the news: Francesco Paolo Lo Iacono and Stefano Marino .
