Italian police arrested 50 people for mafia links in the southern province of Puglia. According to ANSA, all arrested are members of the local Sacra Corona Unita organized crime group. They will be charged with murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and arms. The operation, started at the end of last year, was carried out in the towns of Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto.

SCU killer gets 30 yrs
Hitman killed 3 rivals in 2013

(ANSA) - Bari, October 27 - A Bari appeals court on Friday cut from life to 30 years the sentence of a Puglia mafia (SCU) hitman who killed three gangsters in May 2013.
Antonio Moretti was again found guilty of the vendetta kalashnikov slayings of Vitantonio Fiore, Antonio Romito and Claudio Fanelli.
SCU stands for Sacra Corona Unita (United Holy Crown), the fourth and smallest of Italy's four mafias.

Links between 'Ndrangheta and SCU, arrests in different regions. An order for custody in jail issued at the request of the district prosecutor of anti-mafia Lecce components of a group of the Sacra Corona Unita, investigated for mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, corruption, and more. The investigation revealed, among other things, connections with Rosarno's "ndranghetista" Bellocco clan and infiltrations in the tarantino market of the sale of fishery products.

11 arrests among them “padrino” Dino Caporosso. One of the founders of the SCU.

Italy’s forgotten mafia

http://www.lastampa.it/2017/08/10/esteri...xoK/pagina.html

"Kill the first one you find": in Bari an innocent died killed after the boss order

Giuseppe Mizzi was killed in the central square of Carbonara on March 16, 2011. Antonio Battista, boss of the mafia clan Di Cosola, sentenced to life imprisonment because he was considered the instigator of the crime
December 14th 2017
Antonio Battista, boss of the mafia clan Di Cosola in Bari, ordered his men to respond to the ambush suffered by killing a man, "the first one you find", of the rival clan Strisciuglio. That evening, March 16, 2011, the killers by mistake fired on Giuseppe Mizzi, an innocent victim of the Mafia, mistaking him for a drug dealer. The reconstruction of that tragic event is contained in the motivations of the first degree sentence against Battista (sentenced to life imprisonment at the end of a trial with a shortened trial because he was considered the instigator of the crime) and of another 59 affiliated to the clan charged with crimes of mafia association, drugs, weapons and extortion.

For the death of Mizzi, innocent victim of the mafia, the sentence against the two material executors has already been judged, Emanuele Fiorentino and Edoardo Bove, sentenced to 20 years and 13 years and four months imprisonment respectively. The position of Battista as the principal had been filed until the statements of his wife, Lucia Masella, who after becoming a collaborator of justice had accused her husband by helping the investigators of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, the DDA, to reopen the case.

"In the distorted and aberrant logic that moved the instigator of the murder - the gup writes in the sentence - the execution of the crime must represent the means to reaffirm the dominance of his figure, as the summit of the mafia association, after the shame suffered". Antonio Battista in the spring of 2011 had just come out of prison and was trying to regain control of the territory by reorganizing the clan. "He also had to face armed attacks", reconstructs the judge, coming to decide to "send a signal that at the same time gave account and reaffirmed his criminal rank".

On 15 March 2011 he escaped an ambush while going to the barracks to sign and was injured in one hand. He said "he would fix things"he ordered him to respond to that attack by killing someone from the rival clan. It took only 24 hours to organize and on the evening of March 16, Fiorentino and Bove killed Giuseppe Mizzi in the central square of Carbonara. "We did, but we do not know who we got," said the two to Battista after the ambush, according to reports from his wife. But they had hit the wrong target and hit an innocent, perhaps mistaking him for a drug dealer who looked like him.

http://bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2017/1...ate_-184132646/

An 84-year-old woman was killed and a young man of 20 was injured in an ambush in Bitonto (Bari), in Puglia.
The dynamics of the shooting, which may have been a clash between rival clans, are being investigated by the Mobile Squad of the police headquarters in the capital of Puglia. The woman, killed, according to what has emerged, has been used as a shield by the victim to defend himself from the blows. At least ten shots were fired, one of which hit the woman who was passing by at the wrong time. It is not known whether the shots were fired with a pistol or a sub-machine gun.

MAFIA LEADER FOUND DEAD IN SUITCASE WAS SHOT: PROSECUTOR

https://nltimes.nl/2018/01/08/mafia-leader-found-dead-suitcase-shot-prosecutor

Vito Di Biase, 45, was shot dead in Andria, which occurred yesterday in broad daylight in Via Ausonia.

A garage in the San Paolo district of Bari was the scene of the last shooting. Ignazio Gesuito was shot in his stomach: the man was operated at the Di Venere di Carbonara hospital. The carabinieri of the provincial command of Bari intervened on the spot. Gesuito is already known, in 2006 he was arrested on charges of killing Salvatore Montani, the eighteen year old son of the boss Andrea. Last May he was released from prison where he had finished serving a sentence of 15 years imprisonment.

SCU have a presence in other countries?
According to Wikipédia even if it is infos are taken with precautions they would have a presence in the United States and perhaps in Canada?

They have a presence in and around Amsterdam. Saverio Tucci was found in a suitcase last year, but there were quite a few murders around these guys in the 2000s. According to info they are very active in Aalsmeer, the largest trading centre for plants and flowers in the world.

How strong is the SCU these days ? I've read that they lost a lot of their power after the end of the Balkan Wars , what with Montenegro cracking down on smuggling at the behest of the Clinton administration .

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/201...11fe1b3-68f3-4fa3-925b-5fe90806c2e3.html

Ex-Lecce keeper among 37 arrested in mafia-drugs probe

The killers returned to action last night in the Gargano after the march organized in Foggia on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance for the innocent victims of the mafia. The injured is Marco Raduano, considered a prominent exponent of the Vieste underworld. He was on foot and was returning home in Scialara when he was wounded with gunshots that have reached a hand, a side and a leg. Raduano was taken to the hospital. His condition would not be serious.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/gen...589dde7-8e2f-4fb2-add8-1df19dc09ba0.html

Puglia mafia kills man, 25
In drugs turf war at Vieste near Foggia

These guys dont fool around huh. Kalishnikovs. The other killers in Italy only usually use pistols. Very violent group considering Italy is a first world country.

Increased violence in Puglia , but most violent is Camorra and the Sicilian mafia during 80-90's used everything you can think of. I believe 'Ndrangheta used ak 47 in Germany during Duisburg massacre.

both camorra, sicilian mafia and ndrangheta use sometimes kalashnikov
sacra corona is just the weakest among italian mafias

Ak's are a european thing

Sacra Corona Unita is weaker than the other Mafia's but still quite violent recently. Also I think the camorra power is overexagerated. I don't think they are that much more powerful than SCU nowadays. Ndrangheta and Cosa nostra are definitely more widespread globally.

Since January 2015, the Mafia town of Vieste (population 14,000) has seen 8 murders, 4 failed ambushes, and a disappearance.

AK's are, if anything, a universal thing.. It played a major role in almost every revolution on almost every continent. The country of Mozambique even has a Kalashnikov very prominent on their national flag for chrissake lol

I mean the popularity of this assault weapon in the european underworld. But yeah your right.

The old bosses are all in prison and the new generations are divided into many, small, groups, kept alive by a thriving traffic of drugs and bothered by the interference of 'ndrangheta and Camorra in the affairs of Salento. The Sacra Corona Unita of the third millennium remains a dangerous Mafia but certainly not very competitive compared to the criminal holding companies of other regions, which do business and millionaires investments in many parts of the world.

Twelve arrests were carried out by the Brindisi police as part of an anti-mafia operation that targeted alleged affiliates and supporters belonging to a new clan of the Sacra Corona Unita active in Brindisi and Mesagne. The investigations have revealed intentions of revenge towards the magistrate who conducted the investigation.
In addition to the classic criminal interests, such as extortion and trafficking, the group's activities focused on imposing earnings in the fishing and parking areas . During the investigations, the flow of so-called "sfoglie" (pizzini) among the subjects involved was also intercepted and were supported by the statements of various collaborators of justice.
According to the investigation, among other things, Antonio Campana, detained in Terni and brother of Francesco, one of the most influential and bloodthirsty bosses in the history of the SCU, would have been able to communicate outside even with a mobile phone sent to prison. He would issue orders, request the sustenance of prisoners to those who were outside.

The Carabinieri in Bari and in other localities of Puglia arrested 104 alleged affiliates of the clans "Mercante-Diomede" and "Capriati".
The provision arises from a survey coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Bari that has rebuilt the organizational structures, criminal activities and the ability of infiltration of clans in the economic and social fabric of the city and the province of Bari.
From the investigation emerged the clan affiliation rituals, the availability of weapons also from war like Kalashnikov and relations with exponents of the Foggiana crime group and of the Sacra Corona Unita of Lecce.
Among those arrested, considered a participant of the Mercante-Diomede clan, there is Roberto De Biasi, vice president of the anti-racket association in Molfetta, an entrepreneur in the private security sector.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201806191065547195-dozens-arrested-in-italy-over-links-to-mafia/

Dozens Arrested in Italy Over Links to Mafia - Reports

Blitz del Ros against the Lecce clans of the Sacred united crown: 33 arrests that the carabinieri are carrying out in the province of Lecce against members of two criminal groups federated to the "Tornese" clan of Monteroni.
In the pre-trial detention order issued by the investigating magistrate at the request of the anti-mafia district attorney in Lecce, accusations against the mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, imprisonment and illegal port of arms and other crimes aggravated by the mafia method are contested.

The two criminal associations were headed by two defendants: one by Vincenzo Rizzo, 54, and the other by Saulle Politi, 46 years old. The latter, in particular, is considered by the investigators to be a character of the SCU because of the close contacts that emerged with the 'ndrangheta "Mammoliti" of San Luca, whose presence was documented at his wedding celebrated in March 2016.