11.50 - Two 12-gauge shotguns perfectly preserved and functioning and 38 bullets of different calibers, were found by the carabinieri, hidden underground in different points of the property of "Tempesta", Francesco Domingo, boss believed to be the head of the mafia family of Castellammare del Golfo and arrested yesterday during the "Cutrara" anti-mafia operation. ( Here the article ).
06.00 - A rediscovered centrality of the mafia family of Castellammare in the activities of Cosa Nostra, the involvement of politics, the close link with the American faction of New York, which has much of its roots in characters from the Gulf city, and not least the strong bond with the boss of Castelvetrano, Matteo Messina Denaro.
All this has highlighted the anti-mafia operation "Cutrara" which, yesterday morning, with the use of 200 military personnel, the support of naval units, aircraft and specialized departments such as the Sicilian Hunters Helicopter Squadron and dog units for the search for weapons dismantled the Castellammarese mafia family with 13 arrests and 11 complaints in execution of the precautionary custody order issued by the GIP of the Court of Palermo against affiliates of the mafia family of Castellamare del Golfo.
The arrested -The arrested are 13. At the center of the entire investigation is Francesco Domingo, known as "Tempesta", boss released from prison in 2015. The names of those arrested: DOMINGO Francesco, cl. 56 of Castellamare del Golfo; ANGILERI Diego, cl. 37 of Marsala (domiciliary); BUCCELLATO Felice, cl. 41 of Castellamare del Golfo (domiciliary); DI STEFANO Rosario Antonino, cl. 69 of Castellammare del Golfo; DOMINGO Camillo, cl. 57 of Castellamare del Golfo; THE Daniele room, cl. 80 of Castellamare del Golfo; MERCADANTE Salvatore, cl. 85 of Castellamare del Golfo; MULE 'Maurizio Gaspare, cl. 66 of Castellamare del Golfo; SABELLA Antonino, cl. 57 of Castellamare del Golfo; BUILDING Sebastiano cl. 47 of Castellamare del Golfo (domiciliary); SABILE Francesco, cl. 59 of the Castellamare del Golfo; VALENTI Carlo, cl. 78 of Castellamare del Golfo; VIRGA Francesco, cl. 70 of Trapani. The measure was also directed against SOTTILE Benedetto cl. 48, who died in 2018.
The accusations - The charges against the thirteen arrests carried out by the carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of Trapani, led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Merola, range from mafia-type association, extortion, theft, aiding and abetting, violation of special surveillance and more, all crimes aggravated by the mafia method. A 14th person was included in the ordinance but has died in the meantime. Another 11 people were reported on the loose. Dozens of searches were also carried out, which are still in progress. The investigations - Coordinated by the Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, by the Deputy Prosecutor Paolo Guido and by the Deputy Prosecutors Gianluca De Leo and Francesca Dessì, "have allowed the mafia family of Castellammare del Golfo to be disrupted, which despite internal disputes, sees firmly at the top the offender Francesco Domingo, nicknamed Tempesta, already sentenced to 19 years in prison for mafia-type association and other and returned to freedom in March 2015 â€, say the investigators.
Nicola Rizzo mayor investigated -There is also the Mayor of Castellammare del Golfo, Nicola Rizzo, among the suspects of the operation. The mayor's home was searched at dawn. Rizzo received a guarantee notice for external competition in the mafia association, with a simultaneous invitation to be questioned. It is not known in what context the episode referring to Rizzo fits, who, it must be said, has always made legality and the fight against the Mafia a cornerstone of his administration. He has been in office since 2018. According to Tp24 sources, the episode disputed in Rizzo refers to a building permit requested by those arrested in today's operation. Some municipal technicians would also be involved. “I have full confidence in the judiciary and in the work of the police. I am serene. Declared the mayor of Castellammare del Golfo, Nicolò Rizzo, reached by the guarantee notice in the context of the "Cutrara" anti-mafia operation
The other suspects - In addition to the Mayor of Castellammare del Golfo, Nicola Rizzo, among the suspects of the "Cutrera" anti-mafia operation there is the former vice president of the municipal council of Castellammare del Golfo, Francesco Foderà , who was discovered to turn to the mafia leader local after having suffered the theft of one of his agricultural vehicles, and the Trapani lawyer Francesco Di Bono, former president of the municipal council of Trapani, intercepted to discuss disputes to be resolved with the mafia leader of Trapani Francesco Virga who received the notification of this new ordinance.
Close relations with the American mafia -The new pact between the Sicilian mafia and that of New York passes through Castellammare del Golfo. This is what emerges from the anti-mafia operation of these hours. The emissaries of the American mafia met with Francesco Domingo, 64, known as "Tempesta", the reference point of the fugitive Messina Denaro, and already convicted twice for mafia association.
On the other hand, the origins of the Bonanno clan of New York are precisely in Castellammare, at the Flower Cafè And the Bonannos also related with the mafia of Sciacca, as evidenced by a meeting of 30 July 2018 in Castellammare del Golfo: the mafia boss arrives from Sciacca Accursio Dimino and Sergio Gucciardi, owner of two bars in New York, where slot machines are installed; they meet Stefano Turriciano, "Originally from Castellammare - they write - but mostly residing in the United States and from the information acquired by the judicial police, he was checked in 2007 at the Palermo airport by Franco Salvatore Montagna, a native of Alcamo and brother of Sal Montagna, affiliated to the New York family of Bonanno was assassinated on November 24, 2011 in Montreal â€.
They aimed at new investments in the gaming sector, always with the complicity of Antonello Nicosia, the parliamentary collaborator of the honorable Giuseppina Occhionero, arrested in November last year. affiliated with the New York Bonanno family and murdered on November 24, 2011 in Montreal â€. They aimed at new investments in the gaming sector, always with the complicity of Antonello Nicosia, the parliamentary collaborator of the honorable Giuseppina Occhionero, arrested in November last year. affiliated with the New York Bonanno family and murdered on November 24, 2011 in Montreal â€. They aimed at new investments in the gaming sector, always with the complicity of Antonello Nicosia, the parliamentary collaborator of the honorable Giuseppina Occhionero, arrested in November last year.
Investigations on the Castellammare family - The wiretapping of telephone conversations but also the classic observation, shadowing and control services made it possible to reconstruct the current structure and organization chart of the mafia family of Castellammare del Golfo. In particular, the last historical leader Francesco Domingo is still at the head and is composed of a large number of subjects at his disposal, he has exercised direct and indirect control of economic activities in the reference territory, in particular in the agricultural and construction sector .
This through a series of extortions committed through Mafia intimidation and aimed at the acquisition of works commissioned by private individuals; the mafia intervention on the resolution of economic and other issues between private individuals in total replacement of the institutions in charge of this. Finally, it emerged that the control over the reference territory was such as to leave the decisions regarding the commission of thefts and damage to the mafia association as well as the identification of the perpetrators of the same crimes if not authorized by the same association.
The history of the mafia family of Castellammare del Golfo - That of Castellammare is part of the district of Alcamo, together with the homonymous family and that of Calatafimi Segesta. Until the early 1980s, the Alcamo district was headed by Filippo Rimi, brother-in-law of Tano Badalamenti di Cinisi and linked to the mafia family he directed; the Castellammare del Golfo family was in those years headed by Cola Buccellato, who also held the position of representative of the entire province of Trapani in the Cosa Nostra Commission.
With the first mafia war, which ended in 1983 with the victory of the Corleonesi led by Salvatore Riina, the family of Castellammare del Golfo was "aggregated" to that of Alcamo and the entire district was run first by Vincenzo Milazzo and, since 1992, by Giuseppe Ferro (who later became a collaborator of justice); with the death of Milazzo, the first family of Castellammare was reconstituted and headed by Gioacchino Calabrò, direct referent of the Corleonesi, then arrested in 1993. After 1993 the leadership was then taken on by Michele Mercadante, Agostino Lentini and Nino Valenti, at the top of a a group formed within the articulation under examination which included, among others, Antonino Bosco, Diego Ruggeri, Michele Sottile, Mariano Saracino and, juxtaposed, Francesco Domingo.
Who is Francesco Domingo, known as "Tempesta", at the head of the Castellammare family - Francesco Domingo assumed the regency of the family, in the meantime decimated by numerous arrests, and was then arrested in November 2001 for the crime of participation in association mafia, committed until 1997. In that proceeding Domingo was accused specifically of having favored the inaction of various mafia members, of having contributed to the commission of extortion and of having participated in the execution phase of the murder of Ambrogio Farina (the latter done for which he had, however, been acquitted in the separate appeal process against the sentence of the Court of Assizes of Trapani which had instead sentenced him to life imprisonment). Francesco Domingo was then tried again and sentenced to over nineteen years of imprisonment for having directed the mafia organization of Castellammare del Golfo from 1997 and until 13 July 2004, in the process that resulted from the operation known as "Tempesta ', an appellation with the which Domingo had always been known.
The sentence, in particular, ascertained that the latter, even during his detention following his first arrest in November 2001, had maintained the regency of the mafia family, directly managing extortion to the detriment of companies from the prison and receiving the proceeds to be poured into the "cash" of the association and this through the collaboration of his wife Antonella Di Graziano who, on the occasion of the interviews in prison, received the directives and then passed them on to Diego Rugeri. Released from prison on May 17, 2016, Francesco Domingo was subjected to the preventive measure of the special public security surveillance with the obligation to stay in the Municipality of Castellammare del Golfo.o/150899[/quote]
