Salemi-Palermo axis: bosses and entrepreneurs in business, 11 arrests

Interests in large-scale distribution and energy

The Salemi mafiosi had gone into business with some Palermo bosses and entrepreneurs. The Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate reconstructs the plot. The Carabinieri of the investigative unit of the provincial command of Trapani arrested 11 people (six in prison and five under house arrest) in the provinces of Trapani, Palermo, Como and Rimini. The soldiers of the Palermo investigative unit contributed to the investigations.

The alleged crimes

The crimes charged are mafia association, corruption, bid rigging, fraudulent transfer of valuables, receiving stolen goods and self-laundering.

According to the prosecution, there was a convergence of interests around the figures of Salvatore and Andrea Angelo di Salemi . They are father and son. The first ended up under house arrest, the second is in prison. Salvatore Angelo was one of the entrepreneurs close to Matteo Messina Denaro , in the past, after the previous arrest and conviction for mafia, his assets were confiscated, including some construction and wine companies.

Supermarkets and energy

An ambitious project, which did not come to fruition, had envisaged fictitiously attributing to two Palermo entrepreneurs the shares of a joint-stock company set up specifically to avoid patrimonial measures. The plan envisaged that numerous Coop-branded supermarkets in western Sicily would be acquired with dirty money . The acquisition did not materialize due to various business decisions made by the company.