An old but interesting article
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/20...zera-chi-era-carmine-montescuro/5532316/Naples:Is jailed at 84 years of age, 'Zi Minuzz' the mayor of the Camorra,the boss neutral like the Switzerland: who is Carmine Montescuro.
By Vincenzo Iurillo | October 25, 2019
The 23 arrests faced down the clan of Sant'Erasmo district, called "Little Switzerland." Because Montescuro is described by the investigating judge Ferrigno as a "neutral element in the criminal landscape of the city". He managed the Port area and its contracts and is considered the peacemaker of the conflicts between the clans.
Neutral, like Switzerland. In fact, his clan have called "Little Switzerland". Because the figure of Carmine Montescuro, an 84-year-old Camorra gentleman who has gone through decades of rains of investigations and feuds in Naples without getting wet, was positioned as a "neutral element in the criminal landscape of the city and to be operating essentially in business of an economic nature "Writes the investigating magistrate Alessandra Ferrigno in a powerful ordinance of almost 1200 pages, the result of the investigation coordinated by the anti-crime prosecutor Henry John Woodcock, who with his 23 arrests carried out by the Mobile Squad defeated the gang of the Sant'Erasmo neighborhood.
Neutral, we said. Because in the business controlled by Montescuro and its associates - bribes and extortions around the Port and its contracts -
It was realized the clearing house of delinquent balances citizens. There are areas of Naples where the Camorra stops fighting and prefers to agree on the sharing of the spoils. One of these is precisely the port area: too large and too rich to be dominated by a single gang. And no one could supervise her better than Montescuro, called 'Zi Minuzz', or 'to Vicchiarella' aka the Old Lady, the latter nickname attributed to him for the wisdom and sagacity that clan leaders recognize him.
The repentant have spoken of him in various minutes, some very dated. Starting from the role that Montescuro had in defusing the feud that exploded in 1998 between the Contini and Mazzarella, the key episode was the murder of 75-year-old Francesco Mazzarella, mowed by a machine gun while his son, Vincenzo, was about to leave Poggioreale, just released from the Gip despite the contrary opinion of the prosecutor Luigi Bobbio. The Di Lauro clan, and in particular Paolo Di Lauro, sensed that damage for all would result from that war and convinced the two rival gangs to lay down their weapons in front of a table where Montescuro was made to sit: the Di Lauro were the "military" guarantors, he the "moral" one.
Perhaps the first to recount the episode was the writer Simone Di Meo in a 2008 book now almost impossible to find, "The Camorra Empire". We find it explained in the minutes of May 15, 2008, attached to the ordinance, of the collaborator of justice Maurizio Prestieri, who attributed to Zi Minuzz the belonging to the Mazzarella: "This Zi Minuzz (Carmine Montescuro, ed) came to represent the Mazzarella and in detail by Ciro Mazzarella known as O 'Scellone. I had the opportunity to understand that, beyond appearances, that elderly person had a strong criminal charisma so much that Paolo Di Lauro himself was very respectful towards him. On the other hand, Zi Minuzz evidently had the power to represent in such a delicate situation, the Mazzarella to whom they had killed their father. That meeting that took place in the house where Di Lauro in the Third World leaned (Il Rione dei Fiori in Secondigliano, ed.) Actually laid the foundations for the truce which arrived ".
The prosecutor's office highlights another summit in which Montescuro participated as a 'mediator': that of 2002 in a restaurant in Borgo Marinari. The leaders of important clans were present, including Beppe Missi, the leader of the Mazzarella, and two leading representatives of the Contini and Licciardi clans. The sign of peace was Zi Minuzz's gift to Ciro Sarno, boss of the homonymous clan, in a dispute with the Formicola clan, believed to be responsible for the murder of a Sarno affiliate: a gold necklace.
