'Ndrangheta, the 41 bis strategy against the bosses of Upper Calabria
by Arcangelo Badolati

MARCH 11, 2024

The investigations, trials and "hard" prison. The Catanzaro anti-mafia prosecutor's office, led by Vincenzo Capomolla, has launched an unprecedented offensive against the 'ndrangheta gangs of northern Calabria. In addition to the raids that have led to hundreds of arrests in the last three years, there is an action of isolation of the top leaders of the clans affected by the precautionary custody orders also through the application of the special detention regime provided for by "41 bis".
Just scroll through the names of suspects and defendants forced to the most severe imprisonment to understand this. The Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, has ordered by decree that the people from Cosenza and Rende, involved in the "Reset" maxi-operation, Michele Di Puppo, Mario "Renato" Piromallo, Francesco Patitucci, Adolfo D'Ambrosio, will be confined in high security prisons , Luigi and Marco Abbruzzese: and, with them, Andrea Tundis and Pietro Calabria belonging to an alleged clan active in the San Lucido area, hit with the "Family Affairs" investigation. To the aforementioned top members of the "confederate" cliques operating in the urban area of ??the Bruzio capital. Roberto Porcaro was recently added, sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficking, who after attempting to collaborate with justice, returned to being a "normal" prisoner. The investigating magistrates, in fact, did not consider him fully determined to follow the path of "repentance". And he, as it turns out, took a dramatic step back, making spontaneous statements in the courtroom. The alleged boss, defended by the lawyer Mario Scarpelli, is also under investigation in Salerno for corruption in judicial documents.
The ax of the "41 bis" also hit the most prominent figures of Sybarite organized crime : one after the other they ended up in "hard" prison: Leonardo "Nino" Abbruzzese, 30 years old, considered a point of reference for the nomads in the neighborhood “Timpone Rosso” bunker in Cassano. The prisoner was arrested in Bari by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Operations Department in recent months after a period of hiding. Nicola Abbruzzese, 45 years old, known as "semiasse", brother of the former fugitive and top exponent of the coterie of the same name. Previously it had fallen to Luigi Abbruzzese, 35 years old, "regent" of the gang and son of Franco Abbruzzese, a life prisoner, understood as "dentuzzo" who ended up in 41 bis in recent years.
Finally, Pasquale Forastefano, 39 years old, main representative of the family of the same name and involved in the "Kossa" investigation and already convicted in first instance for mafia.
The ongoing investigations and trials against the Cosenza 'ndrine are followed by district prosecutors Vito Valerio, Corrado Cubellotti, Alessandro Riello and Stefania Paparazzo. Among the prisoners placed under special regime is, as mentioned, the Cosenza boss Francesco Patitucci, sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal last week for the double murder of Marcello Gigliotti and Francesco Lenti, which occurred in Rende in February 1986.