Mafia association, drug trafficking, weapons and extortion: 121 sentences for the Strisciuglio clan
Penalties ranging from 30 years to one year and six months' imprisonment for the defendants, including seven bosses of the criminal group

Editorial board
January 27, 2023 6:22 pm

There are 121 sentences inflicted by the investigating judge of the Court of Bari Antonella Cafagna against as many alleged leaders and affiliates of the Strisciuglio clan. The sentences imposed, as reported by Ansa, range from 30 years to one year and six months in prison. Another 14 people were acquitted.

The charges against the defendants were of mafia association, trafficking and possession of drugs and weapons, extortion of traders, injuries and a brawl that took place in January 2016 in the Bari prison, which involved 41 inmates armed with razor blades and box cutters and in which they reported some prison officers were also injured.

Prosecutors Iolanda Daniela Chimienti and Marco D'Agostino - reports the agency - at the end of the indictment, in the bunker room of the Court of Bitonto had asked for the sentence for the 135 defendants who had chosen the abbreviated procedure (another 15 were postponed to trial) asking for sentences of between 20 years and 22 months in prison.

A sentence of thirty years, the highest, was imposed on Giuseppe Misceo, known as 'Peppino the Ghost', while the alleged bosses Vito Valentino, Lorenzo Caldarola, Alessandro Ruta, Saverio Faccilongo, Vito Catacchio and Giacomo Campanale, among others, were sentenced to twenty years.

The trial follows the Vortice Maestrale investigation, conducted by the police and carabinieri, which had reconstructed, also through the statements of 21 collaborators of justice, the hierarchy and illegal activities of the clan since 2015,

The investigation by the police and carabinieri, called "Vortice maestrale", has reconstructed - also thanks to the declarations of 21 collaborators of justice - the hierarchy and illicit activities of the clan, since 2015, for the control of the territory in the Freedom districts of Bari, the historical stronghold of the mafia group, San Paolo, San Pio-Enziteto, Santo Spirito and San Girolamo and in the municipalities of Palo del Colle and Conversano. The defendants were sentenced to compensate the civil parties: the Libera association and the Municipality of Bari.

https://www.baritoday.it/cronaca/ma...iuglio-operazione-vortice-maestrale.html

Extortion, drugs and robberies: 13 arrests of the Squad in Brindisi

Thirteen people were arrested this morning at dawn by the Brindisi flying squad (six in prison and seven under house arrest) in execution of a precautionary measure issued by the Court of Review of Lecce in August and which became definitive a few days ago after the Court's ruling of Cassation.
The arrested are held responsible in various capacities and in competition with each other for crimes of mafia-type association, aggravated extortion, robbery, possession and carrying of a firearm and crimes relating to drugs.
The arrests are directly linked to those made by the flying squad on 14 July last year and have made it possible to uncover various alleged episodes of extortion committed against some commercial activities in the center and on the outskirts of Brindisi whose owners were forced to pay in in favor of the criminal consortium, even on a weekly basis, a sum of money called a "point".

So the Strisciuglio clan, one group, has 21 collaborators of justice lol, omertà is a thing of the past.

You're so right Hollander, I'm fucking appalled by how many rats there are over there. And they even have a positive name, pentiti or repentents. They're not even called rats!

Hollander, any idea why so many people in one clan would flip? I mean, are the benefits of snitching as good over there as they are in America, where you can become a YouTube sensation with your own podcast? I don't get it.

Also, have you read that article where Roberto Saviano said something like, the Mafia is allowing rats these days as just another cost of doing business. That may explain why some are allowed back into the fold, and some have even been found running their clans again.

the 41bis is the major reason to flip, it was applied to mafiosi by the government to make them to collaborate, it is worse than supermax prison in America

Still didn't answer my other questions. And some bosses have been able to get around 41 bis and still run their clans. I think there's a lot more to all of this than what we're being told.

yes, some bosses have been able to get around 41 bis and still run their clans but the vast majority remain isolated in fact dismantling the 41bis regime was among Riina's requests to the government in the early 1990s.
Recently a 100-day hunger strike by an anarchist leader (Alfredo Cospito) has reignited debate in Italy over the use of Western Europe’s harshest prison regime for dangerous offenders.


Alfredo Cospito: Hunger-striking Italian anarchist moved amid protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64467764

It's probably also that the mentality of today's criminals has changed, deeply rooted in the south there still will be Omertà like in the case of Messina Denaro. But it isn't as strong as it used to be.

Sicilians adopted the code long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra, and it may have been heavily influenced by centuries of state oppression and foreign domination. It has been observed at least as far back as the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule.

Yes I get it, but in some cases the Mafia accepts pentiti as just another cost of doing business. For example, in the book Cosa Nostra by John Dickie he says that part of Bernardo Provenzano's strategy for rebuilding was even allowing disgruntled pentiti back into the fold.

there have been repentants manipulated by the criminal organizations themselves, they are the ones who return to their clan of origin

It's still very early morning even before dawn in Europe, so not much is known yet.

+++ Anti-drug operation: arrests underway in Brindisi and its province by the carabinieri +++
February 6, 2023

An operation by the carabinieri is underway in Brindisi and its province for the execution of a precautionary custody order, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Lecce at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, against several people under investigation for association aimed at trafficking of narcotic substances.

Mafia: Piantedosi, evident violence in Foggia

(ANSA) - FOGGIA, FEBRUARY 06 - "The Foggia mafia, a bit like it happened in traditional mafias, today is characterized by a certain evident violence that other mafias have overcome because they are more dedicated to other forms of pervasive contamination of citizens' lives.

Here there is one thing and another, a mafia in the legal circuits and also that, to claim the role it imagines it should have in the national criminal landscape, it often uses violent actions up to murder, with an increase in the last year .

The preventive action also focuses on the drying up of economic interests and the possibility of influencing the institutions that can be infiltrated". Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said today in Foggia where he signed a pact for urban security.

There have been various references to Abruzzo and the penetration of the Foggia mafia in this area. This is also the land of the Sinti clans Casamonica, De Rosa, Di Silvio, Ciarelli, Spinelli, Di Rocco etc..and Abruzzo houses the famous prison L'Aquila, where Messina Denaro is now incarcerated.

Mafia of the Gargano, the boss and his right-hand man on the loose. The level of the clash between the underworld and the state rises.

The boss Marco Raduano, a 39-year-old from Vieste known as "Pallone" or "Woolrich". escaped from the Badu 'e Carros prison in Nuoro in Sardinia. Yesterday, in fact, Raduano clamorously fled by lowering himself from the boundary wall with a sheet. An episode that rekindles the spotlight on the management of Italian penitentiaries, especially if one considers that the clan chief was in the High Security regime (416 bis). He was serving a 19-year sentence for drug trafficking.

His right-hand 30-year-old Gianluigi Troiano , known as "U' Minorenn", escaped from house arrest on 11 December 2021, fleeing from a house in Campomarino .

Foggia mafia, eight arrests: “Clans infiltrated the economic fabric of Pescara. Usury loans to entrepreneurs with rates up to 600%"

The Guardia di Finanza carried out the measures ordered by the investigating judge of L'Aquila against leading figures of the "Società Foggiana" gang, at the request of the Dda. The investigations revealed the business branches of the Moretti-Lanza-Pellegrino clan: usury, extortion, receiving stolen goods and fictitious registration of assets. Some of the victims have also had to hire their usurers or people related to them as employees

Long-ignored "Fourth Mafia" emerges as most violent in Italy: "You always feel the fear"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fourth-mafia-foggia-most-violent-italy/

Shooting in the street, two injured in Gioia del Colle
Second ambush in a few days in the town in the province of Bari

The toll of a shooting that took place yesterday evening in front of a social club in Gioia del Colle is two wounded. The two men aged 46 and 40, both, are hospitalized at the Miulli hospital in Acquaviva delle Fonti: one of the two, in serious condition, underwent surgery. There was another firefight in the same city on Wednesday, in which a 49-year-old was injured.
The carabinieri have launched investigations to reconstruct what happened. Investigators are assessing whether there are any links between the two episodes

A guy from Italy told me that the so-called "Sacra Corona Unita" is actually pretty much irrelevant these days. The two major organized crime groups in Apulia can actually be more described as Camorra outfits: the Società Foggiana in Foggia and the Camorra Barese in Bari. Both are a federation of clans akin to for instance the Casalesi. In both the Foggia and Bari regions they even speak Neapolitan.

Foggia in particular is - as far as Europe goes - known for being an absolute hellhole.

They do not speak napolitan in Bari. They speak Barese. It has some similarities to napolitan and partly descended from it but is quite different. Similar to the relationship between Sicilian and calabrese. Insist on calling a Barese guy napolitan, he will tell you off.

Oh for sure, there's definitely quite a bit of rivalry, but I always thought that the language they speak in Bari is called "Barese Neapolitan" which is a dialect variety.
The Foggiano dialect is definitely even more similar to Neapolitan.

Whenever Napoli and Foggia football teams play each other it's sorta seen as a semi-derby.

In Bari the language is very different from napolitan and Italian in general. Tomorrow in Italian is domani, in Barese it’s crau. Wine in Italian is vino, in Barese it’s mirre. Father in Italian is padre, in Barese it’s uataun. Some of these words come from synonyms of words in Latin for instance vino comes from the Latin vinum, while mirre comes from the Latin mirrum. However in Latin both meant wine. Other influences are old Norman French, Greek and ancient Illyrian languages from across the Adriatic.

Someone who just learned basic standard Italian would be completely lost in Southern Italy for sure lol.

I think I've heard the word "attan" being used in Napoli for "father".

I also read that, but I wouldn't count them out yet. The notorious Vincenzo Stranieri has been free since 2022. The Stranieri clan is still feared. Vincenzo is the co-founder of the SCU with Pino Rogoli.

Vincenzo Stranieri, known as the "star" for the tattoo in the center of his forehead, is the Italian mafioso who has spent more time than anyone under the 41 bis regime. He was arrested for the first time in 1984 and remained behind bars continuously for 38 years, until 2022. In 1992 the number 2 of the Sacra Corona Unita was subjected to the harsh prison regime: at 41 bis he remains for 28 years. He had been free for a year, but now the lights of the judiciary are turned on again .

There was also another off-shoot, the Rosa dei Venti brought to life in the Lecce prison in 1990 by Giovanni De Tommasi, Cosimo Cirfeta and Vincenzo Stranieri who requested permission from the 'Ndrangheta to detach itself from the SCU due to disagreements with Rogoli. The new organization became operational in Campi Salentina , Manduria , Salice Salentino , Surbo , Veglie , Copertino and Taranto but was immediately defeated by the numerous arrests made by the police following the collaboration with the justice of Cosimo Cirfeta.

In 2006 Cosimo Cirfeta who had also told the magistrates of a prison conspiracy by collaborators of justice from Palermo against Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell'Utri, committed suicide in prison.

Escaped prisoner in Nuoro, two arrests: a prison officer and the wife of a prisoner in handcuffs
Sensational breakthrough on the escape of the boss of the Gargano mafia Marco Raduano

Monday 3 April 2023, 1:00 pm - Last Updated: 4:13 pm
Escape and arrest. There could be a sensational breakthrough in the escape from the Nuorese prison of Badu 'e Carros of the 39-year-old boss of the Gargano mafia Marco Raduano . The Nuoro Flying Squad has arrested two people, according to what has been learned the wife of a prisoner and a prison officer, who may have had some role in the escape from the high security arm of the Apulian boss, who descended from the boundary wall of the penitentiary with knotted sheets and of which there are no traces since February 25th. The Prosecutor of Nuoro Patrizia Castaldini and the Quaestor Alfonso Polverino will give the details at 11 to the Nuoro police headquarters.

Lecce, 16 arrests in the Politi clan of the Sacra Corona Unita

Sacra Corona Unita in Lecce, the Ros arrested 16 people, investigated for various reasons for mafia-type association, aimed at drug trafficking, extortion, robbery and fraudulent transfer of values, use of money, goods or utilities of illicit origin aggravated ex article 416 bis of the penal code. According to the investigators they would also have had relations with the 'Ndrangheta.

Like I said I wouldn't count the SCU out yet.

As part of this morning's anti-mafia operation, the Carabinieri del Ros di Lecce also arrested two other people, including a Lecce financier in service at the Brindisi finance police command. During a house search, the military found about five kilos of cocaine and 300,000 euros in cash.

Andria-based clan dismantled, 20 arrested

https://news.italy24.press/local/549812.html