Cosa Nostra and illegal betting: 15 arrests in Palermo

Blitz between Sicily and Campania by the financiers of the economic-financial police unit

PALERMO - After the surrender last June, the financial investigations into the Cosa Nostra betting agencies have continued until today's blitz.
As delegated by the Public Prosecutor's Office , the investigation is coordinated by the Deputy Prosecutor Salvo De Luca and by the substitutes Dario Scaletta and Maria Pio Ticino, the financiers of the provincial command of Palermo , have executed an order signed by the judge for preliminary investigations Walter Turturici towards fifteen people, The anti-mafia specialists of the Gico of the Palermo economic-financial police unit have developed a second line of investigation. Two distinct criminal associations would have been organized, parallel but both attributable to Salvatore Rubino who, as it had emerged a few months ago, would have used mafia capital for his takeover. The two organizations ran a betting round of no less than 2.5 million euros per month.
The first criminal group, headed by Vincenzo Fiore and Christian Tortora and made up of Salvatore Barrale, Maurizio Di Bella, Pasquale Somma and Giovanni Castagnetta, managed a network of agencies entrusted to trusted people, called masters.
The second organization, which also managed betting centers through which illicit collection operated, had Chianello Rosario and Guarino Michelangelo as prominent figures and made use of the collaboration of Giovanni Di Noto, known as "Gianfranco", already arrested on charges of being an element prominent member of the La Noce mafia family.
Davide Catalano, Giacomo Bilello, Pietro Montalto, Antonio Inserra and Salvatore Lombardo were also part of this criminal group.
The illegal collection of bets took place through the "screen" of agencies authorized by the Monopolies. The under-the-counter managers accepted bets that were handled not on the official network but through illegal foreign platforms.