Catania, usury and extortion: eighteen people under arrest by Natale Bruno
The Laudani clan functioned as a debt collection agency DECEMBER 16, 2020 1 MINUTE READ The Laudani clan functioned as a debt collection agency, acting as an intermediary between those who had to recover sums that others did not want to pay. And then the public auctions with heavy interference in the judicial procedures for the sale of goods. These were the affairs of the Laudani clan decimated by the “Report†operation: eighteen arrested, ten in prison and eight under house arrest. 37 suspects in two years of investigation from 2017 to 2019.
It all stems from wiretapping in prison from which it emerges that the regent of the clan for the Acese area Orazio Scuto, known as "the glassmaker", communicated with his friends through pizzini that he hid in the bricks of fruit juices and in the chocolate bars that he entrusted to daughter, Valentina, ended up under house arrest. Communications aimed above all at his most trusted man, Rino Messina. And so it was found that the clan "fed" on extortion with the classic method with extortion of entrepreneurs and professionals and then with debt collection: in front of the armed men of the "mussi 'ri ficurinia," prickly pear faces ", as they are called , it was difficult to refrain from paying or settling open accounts and at least eight have been rebuilt.
Public auctions that were tempting: six were discovered. One in particular concerns an apartment in which the intervention of Rino Messina was requested in order to alter the sale procedure of the property.
Gennaro Tramontano is the commander of the economic and financial police unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Catania who took care of these aspects: "There is an aspect that we highlighted during the investigations and it is that of the management of judicial auctions towards which organized crime has had interest. Often and willingly at the request of the bankrupt entrepreneurs themselves, the Laudani clan has spent its time in altering the regular conduct of bankruptcy procedures ".
