The Palermo Drug Raids: The Map of Drug Dealers' Bases by Virgilio Fagone
05 December 2024
Three operational bases for drug trafficking, for loading and unloading operations of narcotics as well as for accounting. The investigations of the mobile squad that resulted two days ago in the operation with 25 arrests between Guadagna, Falsomiele, Villagrazia, Calabria and Northern Italy have allowed to identify some properties used for business.
The criminal group led by Salvatore Binario and Salvatore Patti allegedly used a private parking lot in the city on Via Placido Rizzotto, a body shop located in a basement on Via Villagrazia 195 and a room on the ground floor of a condominium on Via del Cigno, a sort of recreational club managed by Salvatore Megna.
Investigators have recorded meetings between the suspects several times, departures and arrivals of the couriers in charge of the cocaine deliveries. According to the investigators' reconstruction, "Binario and Patti would have been mainly responsible for managing the Calabrian supply channel, making use of the systematic collaboration of Francesco Genova, who also took care of the custody of the money to be delivered as payment for the drug shipments as well as the custody and sorting of the loads received for subsequent deliveries to the recipients, namely Giuseppe Davì and Giuseppe Lo Muto.
The latter then took care of the subsequent deliveries, with the help of couriers, including Salvatore Megna."
The movements of the group's members were monitored for months by the police, who also reconstructed several trips to Marsala for the deliveries of large quantities of cocaine to Vito Parrinello and Giancarlo Colletti, who were also arrested in the blitz (on 12 June 2023 Parrinello had been stopped and found in possession of one kilo and 200 grams of white powder, demonstrating the large volumes of drugs handled by the gang).
Davì and Lo Muto were filmed several times with envelopes and packages in their hands, at the moment of the delivery of the money, at the end of the trips to Binario and Patti. The money, according to the prosecution, ended up in a "real common fund that was used to finance subsequent supplies".
The counting of the takings was heard live by the agents engaged in wiretaps and video recordings. The group, linked by a “stable and long-lasting bond”, allegedly put into practice some techniques to try to elude the investigations, such as renting cars to be entrusted to couriers, escorted by couriers, but also the availability of reserved telephone circuits intended for illicit communications. According to the investigating judge Lirio Conti, who signed the precautionary custody order at the request of the magistrates of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, the association aimed at drug trafficking shared a “criminal program” that continued over time.
More specifically, between March and April 2022, the police witnessed several meetings between the suspects in their operational bases. On April 2, Davì and Lo Muto set off for Marsala in a Fiat 500 and upon returning to the city, they reached a parking lot on Via Villagrazia to change cars (a Fiat Panda) and go to the premises on Via del Cigno. Lo Muto was holding a green envelope containing money received from the Marsala residents, according to the investigators' assessments. Ten minutes later, Binario and Patti arrived on site. Starting on April 12, further meetings were recorded, presumably related to other drug sales.
The group always used the same pattern and, thanks to the examination of wiretaps and shadowing, they collected heavy evidence against the suspects. The information learned on the field allowed the police to carry out targeted interventions during the investigations and remove large quantities of drugs, including cocaine and hashish, from the market, as well as recovering five guns and various ammunition.
The investigation also led to the identification of another group of traffickers in Guadagna led by members of the Scarantino family, related to the boss Salvatore Profeta, who disappeared in 2018, and who was considered for a period the regent of the Santa Maria di Gesù district.
