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the operation
'Ndrangheta in Turin, Operation “Factotum”: 6 People Arrested
Among the people involved in the DDA blitz was also Franco D'Onofrio from Mileto, already known for the “Minotaur” operation
Published: 24/09/2024 – 10:36

TURIN Anti-ndrangheta blitz in Turin where the military of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza, with the support of the Central Service for the Investigation of Organized Crime of Rome, under the coordination and by order of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Turin, have executed, in the Piedmont capital and province, an arrest warrant for 6 individuals seriously suspected of committing crimes of mafia-type association, receiving stolen goods, extortion aggravated by mafia methods as well as illegal possession of weapons.

The investigation
The investigations were carried out by the Turin Economic and Financial Police Unit, with the use of complex and detailed judicial police investigations, also carried out through telephone and environmental interceptions and wide-ranging observation and shadowing activities. The investigations were initiated within the framework of the findings of previous investigative activities - in particular the "Carminius" and "Fenice" operations - which, during 2019, made it possible to dismantle a 'ndrangheta articulation of Vibo Valentia origin active in the province of Turin. The investigations highlighted the importance of the role played, for the purposes of the association's operations, by a member elected to the local secretariat of a trade union in the construction sector, a sector of specific interest to the consortium.

Franco D'Onofrio Minotaur Turin
Known names
A central figure in the criminal dynamics of the investigated association was a subject, Francesco D'Onofrio (born in 1955) from Mileto, also affected by the arrest warrant, already implicated in the well-known “Minotauro” trial – concerning the establishment and operation in Turin and in various Piedmontese municipalities of numerous 'ndrangheta formations, all connected to each other and constituting a real associative network – who – according to the accusation – is the director and organiser of the 'ndrangheta network of Piedmont (still operational today) – and in this capacity to have promoted, favoured and participated in meetings between members of various Calabrian and Piedmontese branches (for agreements, alliances, divisions of the territory, requests for mediation or debt collection interventions, regulations of relationships between members and branches, authorisations to commit crimes) – and a reference for members of common organised crime who intended to obtain approval for their criminal activity. He appears to have exercised his role also by supervising the activities of the Carmagnola association's participants in the construction sector, and then having ensured financial support for the legal expenses of the members and their families.

Projections on Carmagnola
The investigations also revealed that the organization in question, thanks to the work of two additional recipients of the arrest, provided protection to entrepreneurs in the Carmagnola area during disputes with other economic operators. This protection service was remunerated with sums of money collected and subsequently allocated to the associates. Emblematic, for the purposes of describing the modus operandi of the subjects involved in the investigations, is the figure of a further associate, affiliated with the 'ndrangheta since 2003 (for this reason already judged), who not only favored the exchange of communications relating to the activity of the criminal group, organizing meetings with other members, but also agreed with other associates, cited as witnesses in hearings for a trial concerning 'ndrangheta-related crimes, terms and methods for giving false testimony, in order to discredit a collaborator of justice. In a specific case, this individual, with a threat consisting in asserting his membership in the organization, forced an extorted individual to hand over valuables (gold bracelets and the like), for a total value of approximately 20 thousand euros. The recipient of the arrest is also a person currently detained in prison for having been definitively judged for having recently been part of the Piedmontese 'ndrangheta. This individual, in addition to participating in meetings between members of the Piedmontese 'ndrangheta organization and being a protagonist in extortion cases, worked to provide financial support and logistical assistance to the fugitive Pasquale Bonavota, believed to be a leading member of the Vibo Valentia clan of the same name.