https://www.corrieredellacalabria.it/2024/07/05/narcotraffico-pentito-messina-ndrangheta/Drug Trafficking, a Sicilian Repentant Reveals: «They Asked Me If I Wanted to Join the 'Ndrangheta»
In Fabio Messina's stories, drug trafficking, encrypted phones and reward. «Cocaine and heroin towards Messina, Taranto and Cagliari»
LOCRI «I want to do this because I am really tired of this disgusting life, I want to try to become a new person if… especially for… for my children». This is how Fabio Messina, born in 1989 in the province of Ragusa, speaking with the prosecutors of the DDA of Reggio Calabria, motivated his choice to collaborate with justice. The statements of the 35-year-old were filed during the last hearing of the “Eureka” trial underway in Locri with an ordinary rite. Statements, therefore, that are added to those of an “excellent” repentant like Vincenzo Pasquino, a leading member of the Calabrian criminal organization and “king” of the narcos of the 'ndrangheta.
The criminal history
Messina's criminal career began when he was very young, in 2008, and culminated in 2016 when he was arrested for drug dealing. "I was arrested in 2016 but I have been in contact with the world of drug trafficking since 2013 ," explains the former drug trafficker, who in a statement filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office a few days before being heard for the first time on August 25, 2022, had declared that "I am tired of my life as a prisoner, so I want to undertake a serious path of collaboration with justice and inform the PM about relevant facts of my knowledge; from this moment on, I seriously fear for my physical safety because I will certainly be threatened by other prisoners, therefore, to protect myself, I ask to be placed in a single room and subjected to a ban on meeting with the entire prison population."
«They asked me if I wanted to join the 'ndrangheta »
During the conversations with the prosecutors, Messina declared that he wanted to talk about the trafficking of "cocaine and heroin that took place between Africo and Cosenza, Taranto, Cagliari". Trafficking organised by the 'ndrangheta and which started from Locride : "I took the drugs - he says - (with cars that I rented in my name) in Bovalino" from individuals "from San Luca". Speaking of the relationships with those who entrusted him with the narcotic substance, Messina states: "Once they even asked me if I wanted, eh, if I wanted to be part of his family and I..., I told them: 'I'm not part of anyone, I..." "With this - he specifies - meaning if I wanted to join the 'ndrangheta" , "they would have given me safe money every month, protection, like, no one would have touched me and all this stuff".
The use of encrypted phones and the “reward”: 1,500 euros per transport
" I know they used encrypted phones , because I was once given one to let them know I had arrived at my destination." "The first trip," the collaborator of justice continues, "we made it to San Leonardo di Cutro." The reward for each transport was supposed to be one thousand and 500 euros . "He told me that... the first time we met he asked me that he had to... he had to take a kilo of heroin to San Leonardo di Cutro and he asked me: "How much do you want?", eh., at that point I asked him (...) I said: "How much do we have to ask for here?" and we asked him for one thousand and five hundred euros, and he told us: "Okay, when you come back I'll give it to you", because then when we went there he gave us the money to take them back." The reward was later reduced: "We had one thousand and five left but he gave me one thousand, divided by two five hundred, that is, a pittance." Shipments to San Leonardo di Cutro, which will earn the organization 19 thousand euros, and not only that . « The one they sent to Messina was better and they made it for twenty-two» , explains the collaborator of justice who in fact also speaks of Messina, Taranto, Brindisi and Cosenza: «the heroin is… down there, on the Ionian coast there is a lot of it and there is no sale in the same areas, the areas where heroin is sold the most are Cosenza and Sicily , places near where I live». (m.ripolo@corrierecal.it)
