Mafia, the operation that dismantled the Mezzomonreale clan: 11 notices of conclusion of investigations
In the Carabinieri raid last January, seven people were arrested between Palermo, Riesi and Rimini: five ended up in prison and two under house arrest

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The Carabinieri of the investigative unit of the provincial command of Palermo have served 11 notices of investigation conclusions for the Roccaforte operation with which the Rocca and Mezzomonreale mafia family in the Pagliarelli district was dismantled last January. Seven people had been arrested between Palermo, Riesi and Rimini: five ended up in prison and two under house arrest.

The suspects are accused of mafia-type association and extortion, committed and attempted, with the aggravating circumstance of having committed the act in order to facilitate mafia activity and of having "made use of the intimidating force of the associative bond and the condition of subjection and of silence that derives from it", state the judges.

Thanks to the interceptions and shadowing, the military also listened to a meeting held in the countryside of Caltanissetta - during which the suspects referred several times to the 'statute' of the Cosa Nostra rules, a real code: in that context recorded is the constant reminder of the suspects to respect the most archaic mafia rules and principles which - summarized in a real statute written by the founding fathers - are considered, even today, the bulwark of the very existence of Cosa Nostra.

In the context of the conversation captured, defined by the investigating judge himself as "extremely rare in judicial experience", explicit reference was made several times to the existence of the "written mafia code", jealously guarded for decades and which still regulates the life of Cosa Nostra in Palermo, the Carabinieri foiled a murder against an architect and numerous extortion and demands for protection money, even through a doll with a bullet in the forehead.