The Santapaola-Ercolanos and the “drug routes”: from Librino to Acireale
CATANIA – Acireale like San Pietro Clarenza. The Villa Comunale, the “ecological villa” of Aci Catena, like the drug dealing squares of via Capo Passero or of Villaggio Sant'Agata in Catania, or like the main streets of Randazzo, Siracusa, Ragusa, Enna or various squares of Messina. Different territories but two common denominators: drugs and the Santapaola-Ercolano clan.
The operation “Cubisia Connection”, conducted by the Carabinieri of Acireale and the provincial command of Catania, under the coordination of the Dda, opens new glimpses into what is now a sad picture with dark colors . A very off-key refrain that marks the fate of young people, adults and many, too many, families. Cocaine, marijuana and crack, in fact, now enter directly into homes.
The Triumvirate and the Organization
The criminal organization would have had three people to coordinate, in fact, everything. It emerges from the investigation that the purchase, transportation, detention, according to the investigators, would have been taken care of by three arrested, nicknamed "Melo Box", "Otto" and "Tigna", aka Carmelo and Ottaviano Grasso and Salvatore Scalia respectively.
They also took care of the deliveries and supplies of the drug dealing areas controlled by the organization, maintaining contact with the suppliers and giving instructions to the collaborators who, on a daily basis, would have carried out the task of being couriers, retail de, would have carried out the task of being couriers, retail dealers or lookouts, taking shifts and even using "company" cell phones. A sort of limited liability mafia company, a mafia 'connection' in fact.
The interrogations and the investigation
The interrogations are underway. The last to appear before the investigating judge will be the two for whom the judge's measure has only ordered a ban on residence in Acireale with the obligation to report to the police. The investigation, obviously, is still wide open.
After the interrogations, during which the arrested theoretically have the right to remain silent , their lawyers must decide whether to ask the investigating judge to annul the order; or alternatively, more likely, to challenge the order before the Catania Court of Liberty.
The case of two months ago in San Pietro
The real leaders of the Catania mafia know this well – those who remain behind the scenes, hidden in the newly built buildings built thanks to the protection money – today the Santapaolas are practically gambling the survival of Cosa Nostra. And this is because with drugs they manage to keep the clans active, the common coffers open, and the 'salaries' to the detained men of the clan and their families flourishing .
The news in recent weeks has also reported cases in which drugs, rather than a business, are a tool. It happens in San Pietro Clarenza, where the clan - which would refer to an alleged boss in his seventies, a butcher by profession - does not operate directly in drug trafficking. Here, however, according to investigators, Santonocito would have had a loyalist who took care of the rounds. The objective? Control the territory, not allow entry to other groups.
The mussi 'i ficurinia in the territory of Randazzo
The trial of the alleged Sangani clan from Randazzo, beheaded by the Carabinieri in the “Terra bruciata” investigation, is still underway in Catania . There too, the mafia handled drug trafficking with meticulous organization. In that case, the bosses were not called Santapaola, but Laudani. And in any case, whether the local cell answered directly to the Santapaolas or indirectly to them, through the so-called 'mussi i ficurinia' – who in any case then depend on the Santapaolas – drugs are a business that should not be missed at all costs.
The same, of course, applies to the metropolitan city. Here, even fierce, bloody clashes have been recorded , for the conquest or maintenance of control in the drug dealing areas. In via Capo Passero – where one of the most important is located – but also in other areas of the city, in recent years there have been no ambushes, injuries, demonstrations, or gunshots.
Drug trafficking in neighboring provinces
Numerous operations by the Carabinieri and the police have revealed that in other provinces of the Island the substance does not change. The drugs arrive from Catania, from the Santapaolas or from their different twins, namely the 'stiddari' of the Cappello clan. The drugs arrive from Catania to Enna, where the pushers of Leonforte, Agira, Regalbuto, Catenanuova, Enna, Piazza Armerina , all get their supplies in via Zia Lisa or in Librino.
The same goes for the provinces of Messina, Ragusa and Siracusa . Almost zero, for some years now, are the trips – documented by arrests by the police – of drug couriers to Palermo (in Piazza Guadagna), another area of ??origin of drugs that until 2010 was considered a reference point for many local dealers. The 'drug routes', for fifteen years now, say that in this part of Sicily, today, Catania is in charge. The Santapaolas are in charge .
