Raffaele Imperiale pentito, mentions the first names: “Money from drug dealing recycled into gold bars. Every month I spent 400 thousand euros”
editorial board
8 December 2022

It's a raging river Raffaele Imperiale , by now the most famous ex narcos in the world, now repentant, has released the first statements as a collaborator of justice providing the first details on the earnings made in the world of drugs, the money spent to support the business and those for recycling. Four interrogations in the last two months, the first names of the partners and affiliates of the powerful globetrotting narcos appear.

He says he left his partner a cash of 18 million euros. And he says that he spent – ??for years – every month between 350,000 and 400,000 euros a month , money that was used «for the salaries of their members (the high-end ones pocketed up to 20,000 euros a month, complete with thirteenth and fourteenth salaries ), but also for the families of prisoners, for the insurance of cars and trucks to be used to transport cocaine and for the management of ordinary expenses.

Deal money in gold bullion
«I invested in gold bars, I know that they sell foils in Naples. I got the ingots from a company, a foundry in the north near Venice». In this scenario, Imperiale brings up some partners, including Anastasio, Ursini and Genovese, claiming to have invested in an important shopping center (specializing in precious items) in Campania. A deal, that of the bullion, which would have produced revenues of twenty million a month ».

According to the account recorded in the minutes, Imperiale had long since decided not to deal directly with drugs. He worked on various platforms, thanks to encrypted circuits such as Sky ECC, an app used on smartphones for interception-proof conversations: «I had decided to deal only with economic flows» , he explained.