Mafia at the foot of Etna: 18 on trial with alleged boss Mancari
The money of the Tomasello-Mazzaglia-Toscano group and the drugs that came from Adrano
BIANCAVILLA (CATANIA) – According to the Carabinieri and the DDA of Catania, the clan would be headed by Giuseppe Mancari . And for years he would have imposed a blanket extortion on bartenders, tire dealers, and restaurateurs: they took money from everyone in the name of the Tomasello-Mazzaglia-Toscano group, referents in the city of the Santapaola-Ercolano clan.
Nineteen have now been sent for trial . Thirteen will take the abbreviated trial, which will open on September 24, while six others will take the ordinary trial, which will open in October. The alternative trial was chosen among others by the same alleged boss Mancari, now 74 years old . Among the charges, to varying degrees, there is also drug trafficking.
The defendants
The other defendants are thirteen who were arrested in Operation Ultimo Atto : Salvatore Manuel Amato, Fabrizio Distefano, Placido Galvagno, Giovanni Gioco, Piero Licciardello, Nunzio Margaglio, Carmelo Militello, Nicola Gabriele Minissale, Alfio Muscia, Ferdinando Palermo, Mario Venia and Carmelo Vercoco. The others were investigated at large.
The accusations are based on the investigations of the Carabinieri, but also on the revelations of one of the last repentants of the Catania mafia, Vincenzo Pellegriti . According to his statements, Cosa Nostra, in Biancavilla, would set in motion its tax collectors in particular at Christmas, Easter and for San Placido, the patron saint of the city since 1709. In short, the third "instalment" of the pizzo, here, is not requested on August 15th (according to a consolidated calendar of other areas), but in October.
The feast of San Placido
And it is precisely during the days of the feast of San Placido, according to Pellegriti, that the targets are carousel operators and sellers of roasted horse meat. “Basically,” he said, “ those who wanted to set up a stall were forced to buy horse meat through the mafia clan.”
A man from the clan would always act as a spokesman . And he would impose on the stall holders "the purchase of meat that he in turn would buy from an authorized butcher". The price obviously, from the producer to the final seller, rose considerably.
The threats
“ If someone refused and wanted to buy the meat directly from the butcher, they were threatened ,” continued the collaborator of justice, in summary, “and then we damaged their stall, even setting it on fire. As for the rides, first of all I want to say that the owners are forced to give about 100 blocks of about 20 free tickets to “the children of prisoners .” In reality, in recent years, the people from the mafia clan who took these blocks, we then gave them away as we pleased.”
And, again, the “ owners of each individual game pay around 400 or 500 euros to the mafia clan ”. “These extortions – he clarified – naturally went on for years and as regards the period following my release from prison”.
According to investigators, the drugs came from Adrano, other times from the Laudani clan or from the “Fossa dei Leoni”, one of the Cappello clan's most important drug dealing areas.
