The Foggia mafia: the seventies and eighties

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As Laronga explains, in Puglia the Camorristi soon imposed leadership, through requests for money in exchange for protection and affiliations of local gangsters. Cutolo's project aimed to cross regional borders, and the prison was the perfect place for recruiting affiliates. In Puglia, small formations were created that operated autonomously in the territories: according to the Report of the General Command of the Carabinieri, Foggia was under the control of Giosuè Rizzi and Giuseppe Iannelli , the latter among the major representatives of the 'Ndrangheta, who committed suicide in the Bari prison In Cerignola there was Cosimo Cappellari , in Taranto the Modeo brothers , while in Brindisi Giuseppe Rogoli, originally from Mesagne, connected to the Calabrian gang of the Bellocco, who a few years later founded the Sacra Corona Unita .

Affiliations

Cutolo 's project took on the official traits on January 5, 1979, at a summit held at the Hotel Florio , on State Road 16 between Foggia and San Severo , in which he himself participated, after escaping from the prison of Ascoli Piceno. The meeting sealed the affiliation of 40 Apulians. In 1981 the new Apulian Camorra was active throughout the territory, acting autonomously but under the control of the Camorra from Campania, to which it paid 40-50% of the illegal proceeds.

The decline of Cutolo

The experience did not last long, because both inside (with the requests for maintenance of the affiliates) and outside the prisons, the control of the bells had become overwhelming. In Campania, meanwhile, we witness the sunset of Cutolo, defeated by the rival clans who also joined the Corleonesi. The decline of 'O professor' paved the way for the autonomy of the Apulian underworld. The people of Brindisi and Lecce began, followed by Foggia and Taranto.


From the Sacra Corona United to autonomy

As mentioned, Rogoli founded a new criminal organization between 1981 and 1983, although only a judgment of the Court of Appeal in 1990 officially recognized the Sacra Corona Unita as a mafia association. Rogoli aimed at a federation in which the map of the Apulian underworld was divided into provinces. Foggia would have been a rib of the SCO, but Rogoli's desire for autonomy and attitudes wrecked the unity project. These are the years in which a creature begins to form itself. In the early 80s Foggia was divided between two factions that clashed fiercely: on one side Giuseppe Ciliberti , on the other Michele Carella. Between 83 and 84, however, one of the emerging exponents of the first clan, Gerardo Agnelli , passed to the rival one by marrying a niece of Carella, who in the meantime was arrested in the US for drugs. It was Agnelli who took command, while Ciliberti was killed on 3 October 1984. Prominent members of the Foggia underworld, such as Bonalumi, Ciccone, Delli Muti and Gaetano Moffa , soon joined the Agnelli-Carella clan . This led to 1986, a year of fire.