New arrest for ndrangheta in Reggio. In the investigation a weapon found in Parma

In handcuffs, the 47-year-old Salvatore Procopio is accused of criminal association of a mafia type and illegal possession of firearms
09 OCTOBER 2021
1 MINUTE READ

The Reggio Emilia State Police arrested the 47-year-old Salvatore Procopio, considered by the investigators to be a member of the Emilian 'Ndrangheta.

The man is accused of criminal association of a mafia type and illegal possession of firearms.

The precautionary custody measure in prison was carried out by the mobile team of the Reggio police headquarters, ordered by the investigating judge of the Bologna court, Alberto Ziroldi at the request of the chief prosecutor of the DDA, Giuseppe Amato and by the prosecutor Beatrice Ronchi as part of the Perseverance operation.

The investigation had already brought several leading exponents of the association in handcuffs including Giuseppe Sarcone Grande, Salvatore Muto (born in 1985, brother of Luigi and Antonio already sentenced on appeal even in the Aemilia maxi trial), Domenico Cordua, 44 years old, and Giuseppe Friyio, 43, cousin of Procopio, for mafia association and attempted extortion aggravated by the mafia method and facilitation.

On the occasion, an extortion activity for two million euros of illicit origin was documented and a weapon with abraded and illegally detained serial number was seized.

The weapon, a 7.35 caliber Beretta pistol, according to investigators sold to Cordua by Procopio, was found by the carabinieri in May 2020 during the search of the apartment that Cordua and Friyio shared in Parma.

Procopio is considered by the suspects, who in the course of the captures exalted his criminal status, and unanimously by the collaborators of justice, a "shareholder", that is a member of the 'Ndrangheta faction capable of carrying out criminal acts, even violent.

During the investigations, Procopio was found to intervene on multiple occasions, using his own authority as a 'Ndranghetista, to settle disputes between his associates or to resolve conflicts concerning his associates, as well as to favor the Muto family of Gualteri (already affected by the Aemilia operations and Grimilde)