Drug trafficking from Germany to Sicily, 15 arrests by the ROS

https://news.italy24.press/local/1692168.html

Mafia: operation in the province of Caltanissetta, 9 arrests
DDA investigation into the Campofranco clan

Nine people were arrested by the Carabinieri as part of an operation coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Caltanissetta Prosecutor's Office because they were believed to belong to a mafia clan based in Campofranco.

Seven people were taken to prison and two were placed under house arrest, while another person is untraceable and currently wanted. They are under investigation for mafia-type association, extortion aggravated by the mafia method and the availability of weapons, possession and dealing of narcotic substances in competition.

The investigation was launched in October 2022 after the release of Angelo Schillaci, who had served a sentence for the mafia. The suspects, mostly presumed to belong to the Campofranco family, would have worked to reorganize the clan by procuring weapons and setting up a 'common fund' with the illicit proceeds of extortion and drug dealing.

In particular, four attempts at extortion with acts of intimidation against some companies involved in the renovation of public works in the municipalities of Campofranco and Milena and against a commercial operator in Campofranco were ascertained, as well as three extortions against entrepreneurs and traders. The clan also had relationships with subjects from Milena and the province of Agrigento. The Campofranco mafia family, also known as the Vaccaro clan because it is led by the brothers Domenico and Lorenzo Vaccaro, has always been at the center of the mafia balance in the province of Caltanissetta.

Domenico Vaccaro, the last provincial representative of Cosa Nostra Nissena, had assumed an important role in the balance of the Sicilian mafia in the years immediately following the capture of the historic leader Salvatore Riina, because he was identified as a substitute for the head of the provincial commission 'Piddu' Madonia.

Fabio Repici: ''The ECHR is wrong, the wiretaps in Contrada were necessary''
AMTwo thousand May 25, 2024
The lawyer contests the Strasbourg ruling which condemned Italy to compensate the former 007 for wiretaps carried out in the investigation into the Agostino case
“The ECtHR's decision was taken without the victim's family having had the opportunity to intervene, this should make us reflect on the risks of abuse of Strasbourg's jurisdiction. There were in fact obvious reasons that made the wiretaps ordered by the judicial authorities necessary."
This was stated by the lawyer Fabio Repici, commenting on the sentence of the Strasbourg judges who once again condemned Italy to compensate the former head of the Palermo Flying Squad Bruno Contrada.
The matter was made known on May 23rd by the lawyer Stefano Giordano, Contrada's lawyer. The question submitted to the Court, as Il Fatto Quotidiano recalls, concerned some telephone conversations of the former number three of the Sisde as part of the Palermo investigation into the murder of the policeman Nino Agostino and his wife Ida Castelluccio. The policeman was murdered on 5 August 1989 and was involved in the capture of mafia fugitives, a secret activity in which he discovered that "Cosa Nostra, and in this specific case the Madonia gang", had relationships "with important exponents of the police forces connected to the state security services"

https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/ho...tazioni-a-contrada-erano-necessarie.html

Palermo: weapons, waste, drugs and extortion, 27 people arrested by the Carabinieri

https://lamilano.it/en/chronicle/pa...ni-27-persone-arrestate-dai-carabinieri/

Trial at the Cosa Nostra "Cupola", definitive blow but not for everyone

PALERMO – For some bosses the sentence is final, for others a new appeal process will have to be held.

The trial arising from the raid by the Carabinieri which destroyed the new Commission of Cosa Nostra in 2018 reaches the Court of Cassation. There are cancellations with postponement, appeals not presented and others rejected or inadmissible.

Who did not appeal

For some, the sentence became final even before the supreme judges spoke. In fact, Leandro Greco (12 years), Calogero Lo Piccolo (27 years in continuation with other sentences), Fabio Messicati Vitale (10 years), Salvatore Troia (11 years and 4 months) had given up their appeal to the Court of Cassation and will serve the sentences. , Andrea Ferrante (12 years), Giusto Francesco Mangiapane (6 years), Matteo Maniscalco and Luigi Marino (6 years and 8 months each), Giovanni Sirchia (8 years).

Collaborators of justice

Same thing for the three collaborators of justice: Sergio Macaluso (2 years), Filippo Bisconti (13 years in continuation with a previous conviction) and Francesco Colletti (10 years and 10 days, always in continuation).

For whom there will be a new trial

Annulment with postponement and therefore trial to be redone for Massimo Mulè (defended by lawyers Marco Clementi, Giovanni Castronovo and Francesca Aricò). In the case of the Porta Nuova mafioso (he has already served sentences in the past) it is yet another judicial stage.

For some he was the "puparo" who held the strings in Ballarò , but he was acquitted at first instance. On appeal, the verdict was overturned and he was sentenced to 11 years and 4 months. His lawyers underlined the anomalous procedural progression.

The preliminary investigation had been reopened on appeal and the collaborators came to report episodes that they had not talked about before.

Cancellation with postponement also for Maurizio Crinò (he had been 9 years and 4 months). Defended by the lawyer Tommaso de Lisi, the annulment concerns extortion.

Same thing for Giovanni Salvatore Migliore (he was 8 years and 8 months old). Defended by the lawyer Rocco Chinnici, an attempted extortion and the aggravating circumstance of the armed association must be re-evaluated.

And again for Vincenzo Ganci (defended by lawyers Raffaele Bonsignore and Antonio Gargano, on appeal he was sentenced to 8 years and 8 months for mafia and extortion). The annulment with postponement concerns all charges. The defense will ask for immediate release due to the expiry of the terms of precautionary custody.

Cancellation with postponement also for Settimo Mineo (he had received 21 years in continuation with a previous sentence), he is guilty but the sanctioning treatment must be reviewed.

And finally, a new trial will be needed for Domenico Nocilla (he had been sentenced to 9 years and 8 months, defended by the lawyer Maria Teresa Nascè), but only to re-evaluate one charge; Michele Rubino (he had been given 10 years and 8 months, defended by the lawyers Domenico La Blasca and Michele Giovinco): in his case the appeal is back to re-evaluate the conviction for the mafia.

The new "Cupola"

The bosses of the new mafia convened the Cosa Nostra provincial commission after the death of Totò Riina. Settimo Mineo, Pagliarelli's senior boss, presided over the new Commission in a building in Baida .

Between one pastry and another at his side were Gregorio Di Giovanni from Porta Nuova, Francesco Colletti from Villabate, Leandro Greco from Ciaculli (he is the nephew of Michele Greco, the 'pope' of the old mafia, and lived in a house museum ), Giovanni Sirchia from Passo di Rigano, Calogero Lo Piccolo from San Lorenzo.

They were all arrested in December 2018 by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of Palermo, coordinated by the then prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi (now in Rome), by the deputy Salvatore De Luca (now prosecutor in Caltanissetta) and by the deputies Amelia Luise ( today at the European Prosecutor's Office), Francesca Mazzocco, Bruno Brucoli, Gaspare Spedale and Dario Scaletta (now councilor of the CSM).

The other final sentences
The appeals rejected or inadmissible, and therefore, final sentence for Filippo Cusimano 9 years, Stefano Albanese 9 years, Filippo Annatelli 13 years and 4 months, Giuseppe Bonanno 5 years and 8 months, Carmelo Cacocciola 6 years and 8 months, Francesco Caponetto 13 years and 4 months, Giuseppe Costa 9 years, Rubens D'Agostino 10 years, Gregorio Di Giovanni 11 years and 4 months (against 14 years), Filippo Di Pisa 8 years.

And again: Michele Grasso 8 years and 8 months, Marco La Rosa 6 years and 8 months, Gaetano Leto 12 years and 8 months, Erasmo Lo Bello 12 years, Domenico Mammi 2 years thanks to the mitigating circumstance recognized by his collaborators, Salvatore Mirino 9 years and 4 months, Salvatore Pispicia 12 years, Gaspare Rizzuto 12 years and 4 months, Giovanni Salerno 10 years and six months, Salvatore Sciarabba 13 years, 10 months and 20 days (on appeal he was given 14 years), Giuseppe Serio 13 years and 4 months, Salvatore Sorrentino 10 years, Salvatore Ferrante one year.

That are some very powerful mafia CEO's m2w.

Salvatore Sorrentino (1965)

The story of the boss Luigi Ilardo on Cose nostri.

From the moment of his release, which took place shortly after the season of massacres and for two years, Luigi Ilardo lived a double life, until Cosa Nostra, on 10 May 1996, decided that he must die and killed him in an ambush on the door of his home.

Luigi Ilardo 's collaboration was bringing the State one step away from capturing the boss of bosses, Bernardo Provenzano . Ilardo's repentance and then infiltration activity are reconstructed thanks to the story of Mario Ravidà , former Dia agent, and Pasquale Pacifico , the prosecutor who led to the conviction of the instigators and perpetrators of his murder.

https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/ho...del-boss-luigi-ilardo-a-cose-nostre.html

Cocaine, crack, weed: the "narcos" of Catania and the turnover in Sicily

CATANIA – It was January 11, 2019. An investigation by the Carabinieri, which resulted in the "Shooting Star" operation , led to dozens of arrests and drug seizures. It all started from San Cristoforo. That operation made clear a phenomenon that investigators had been studying for some time: a Catania model existed.

A drug trafficking operation of elephantine dimensions. Here, the Santapaola-Ercolano and Cappello-Bonaccorsi clans have in fact created a system not dissimilar to the Camorra organisation: the basis of everything is the drug dealing squares. A system of lookouts, retail sales, two-way radios and supply control. All under mafia control. As well as "exports" to other provinces.

A structured management, it was said at the time, capable of earning even 11 thousand euros a day. And the factual situation has never changed. Indeed, that model has also become routine in other places on the island. With a common denominator: suppliers. Almost all, almost always, from Catania.

Management in the province

Two years ago the carabinieri broke up a drug trafficking organization. From a bar in Aci Bonaccorsi, it emerged, they supplied various centers in the province, from Etna to the coastal towns. They called it Operation Tiffany. Cocaine and marijuana departed from Aci Bonaccorsi.

The control of supplies reached areas very far from Catania. Last year, in May, the Trapani carabinieri discovered a cocaine ring imported to Marsala through rental cars. Here too a flurry of arrests took place. It was named Operation Fox. The cocaine came straight from Catania.

In the heart of the island

In the Ennese area, dozens of operations conducted by the Flying Squad, by the police stations, by the Carabinieri companies and by the operational department of the Carabinieri, have always revealed the same data: the supplies always come from Catania. From Barrafranca to Agira , the most active centres, then Catenanuova, Leonforte and Pietraperzia .

Small pushers buy in Catania. They buy from the Cappello clan or the Santapaola family. A month ago the ROS carabinieri defeated a gang of drug dealers in Barrafranca (Operation Albana). There were worrying international entanglements in Germany. And there was the traditional Catania point of reference, in this case the Cosa Nostra clan of Ognina.

Further back in time, just think of the drug trafficking organized from Catania and managed by the Barrafranca and Pietraperzia clans between 2018 and 2021 , in the period in which the Santapaolas, in fact, ousted the old provincial boss of Cosa Nostra to put in its place are more "awakened" people, more practical, above all, with drugs.

From San Cristoforo to Agira

In Enna, Agira has always been a hub for drug trafficking. And even in this city, where gangs of drug dealers have been caught repeatedly over the years , the suppliers are from Catania. Those who buy in Catania, in Librino or in San Cristoforo, or at Zia Lisa , are generally "small" couriers with vehicles.

Then there is the case of Catenanuova, where the management of extortion and drug trafficking changed hands, from Cosa Nostra to the Cappello clan, with a river of blood. A massacre was committed in 2008 , and a crime in 2012. The murderers, in both cases, came to Catania .

In Caltanissetta, in December 2022, 9 crack, hashish and marijuana dealers were arrested. It's one of many similar episodes in these parts. And it turned out that the pushers were buying the drugs in Palermo, Enna (Barrafranca) and Catania. Then they distributed it in the streets of the capital of Nisseno.

The competition of the 'Ndrangheta

In February 2021 in Catania, the feared competition of the 'ndrangheta and the potential business in the Catania area also caused a crime. A pusher, Vincenzo Timonieri, was killed because he wanted to manage his own trafficking , in defiance of the Nizza clan, with his suppliers from the 'Ndrangheta. They buried his body in a dune in Vaccarizzo.

In other cases, Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta have actually collaborated. On March 3 last year, the Messina Police Headquarters flying squad arrested 15 people for drug trafficking and criminal association. There were three supply channels in the Strait City. Two in Calabria , where the Port of Gioia Tauro is traditionally considered the "international drug port", in the hands of the 'Ndrangheta. The third, very solid, in Catania .

In 2020 in Syracuse the carabinieri arrested 12 people. They sold cocaine, marijuana and hashish. They had purchased it in Catania, Palermo and Calabria . Here too the 'Ndrangheta was one of the channels, but there was no shortage of interactions with the Catania mafia.

I could have a field day with this. But I'll say it pretty much confirms many observations an theories I've had over the last few years...

Agrigento: rural mafia, five arrests

https://www.agenzianova.com/en/news/Agrigento-rural-mafia-five-arrests/

The boss from Agrigento "traveling with Messina Denaro" on the off-road vehicle


PALERMO – The blitz on the mafia in the countryside in the province of Agrigento brings an old acquaintance of the investigators back to the fore . A new precautionary custody order was served on Pietro Campo in prison, where he is already detained.

The thought goes back to 2009 , to a video that immortalized him together with a man who remained without identity. According to some investigators, alongside Campo, in a Mitsubishi Pajero, was Matteo Messina Denaro .

A hypothesis without any certainty, but which in light of recent investigations becomes plausible. The fugitive from Castelvetrano, in fact, went around Sicily with extreme tranquility.

The off-road vehicle traveled along a country road at 10 in the morning. It was December 7, 2009 when a camera filmed the passage of the vehicle for a few seconds.

Then a confidential source had linked Matteo Messina Denaro to Pietro Campo , owner of a farm not far from the place where the car was filmed, in the Gulfa district, between Santa Margherita di Belice and Torre Pandolfina. His son Giovanni Campo, also arrested today, was also searched.

Pietro Campo, boss of Santa Margherita Belice, is not the latest arrival, but a character of great mafia caliber. He was arrested in the early 1990s, subsequently in 2002 in the “Cupola” blitz and would return to prison again in 2015. In 2017 a 14-year sentence became definitive.

Would Messina Denaro have gone so far as to move with a man known to the police? However, we know about him that he led a normal life between tattoos in Palermo and moves to Campobello di Mazara where he even managed the arrangement of the furniture himself.

In addition to the elements acquired through the investigations, two turncoats also indicated Campo as Messina Denaro's contact person: Antonino Giuffré and Maurizio Di Gati .

The latter reported Campo's role as interpreter of the Castelvetrano boss's pizzini. Between 2005 and 2006, investigators discovered thanks to the pizzini found in Bernardo Provenzano's hideout, those who maintained contact with the Agrigento mafia were Filippo Guttaduro and Leo Sutera, indicated respectively with the code names '121' and 'il prof' .

I watched the show on Rai 1, interesting there were also links between them and 'Ndrangheta. If Luigi Ilardo did succeed Provenzano would have been arrested in 96/97, not 2006.

The Stidda reorganized itself and aimed to kill repentants, arrests were made in the Ragusa area
Karim El Sadi 08 June 2024
In Vittoria, the prosecutors Ardita and Fragalà stopped in its tracks the attempt to reorganize the historic rival organization of the mafia
Once a rival of Cosa Nostra, now a strong organization that conducts its business independently in the South East of Sicily, Stidda has recently made headlines again. The police investigations, coordinated by the Catania DDA, discovered and stopped Stidda's attempt to structurally reorganize itself in its tracks. The Ragusa flying squad and the Vittoria police station arrested three people yesterday following orders from the investigating judge. They are Biagio Cannizzo, Raffaele Giunta and Alessandro Pardo . While a fourth suspect is at large. The deputy prosecutor of Catania Sebastiano Ardita and the deputy Gabriele Fragalà accuse them of mafia association. Cannizzo (who at the time of his arrest was found in possession of a 357 Magnum, with abraded serial number and several bullets) and Giunta are also under investigation for the attempted murder of the former justice collaborator Roberto Di Martino , who on 25 April had been wounded in Vittoria , in the cemetery area, with two gunshots fired in the direction of the neck and face. According to the investigators, in fact, there was a plan by the new Stidda to eliminate some justice collaborators who had returned to live in the province of Ragusa.

Read more: https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/ho...ntiti-scattano-arresti-nel-ragusano.html

Mafia, 16 arrests between the provinces of Catania and Ragusa

Blitz by carabinieri and financial police

Anti-mafia blitz between the provinces of Catania and Ragusa. The carabinieri of the investigative unit of the provincial command of Ragusa and the financiers of the Gico of the economic-financial police unit of Catania made 16 arrests.

THE ACCUSATIONS

The order was issued by the investigating judge of the Catania court , at the request of the Etna district anti-mafia directorate. The 16 arrested face various charges: mafia association, external participation in mafia association, attempted murder, illicit competition with threat or violence. These are crimes that would have been committed between the provinces of Ragusa and Catania.

Anti-mafia operations between Ragusa e Catania: 16 arrests

https://lamilano.it/en/chronicle/operazioni-anti-mafia-fra-ragusa-e-catania-16-arrests/