Mafia, extortion and resurgence of the clan: "We'll kill his brother-in-law"
CATANIA – The crime of association is the central focus of the investigation.
Operation “Primus” led to the arrest of 21 people for mafia in the night between Thursday and Friday. All believed to be close to or affiliated with the Scalisi clan of Adrano. Investigations started in July 2021, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Ignazio Fonzo and the substitutes Assunta Musella and Fabio Saponara , saw the mobile squad of the Catania Police Headquarters and the Adrano police station in the field.
Mafia, the Scalisi clan on the territory The existence of a mafia-type criminal association operating in the territory of Adrano which takes its name from its promoter Antonio Scalisi has already been confirmed with sentence no. 10/92 issued by the Court of Assizes of Catania.
A clan that was then the subject of the sentence issued twenty-five years ago - the Fico d'India trial -, which also convicted Alfio Di Primo and Pietro Maccarrone (grandfather of today's suspects Claudio and Pietro) and Giuseppe Scarvaglieri himself for the crime of association .
The sentence in question reports how " to assert his dominance in the territory of Adrano, Scarvaglieri and his group engaged in a bloody fight against the rival group of " Santangelo-Taccuni" , historically allied with the Catania family "Santapaola-Ercolano", and it is also attested how Di Primo, brother-in-law of Scarvaglieri, was also a "prominent" affiliate of the same group". The dynamism of the "Scalisi" clan is also proven by the sentence of the Terra bruciata trial.
The precautionary measures carried out against members of the Scalisi and Santangelo-Taccuni families had indirectly determined the progressive establishment in the territory of the “Lo Cicero” group headed by Cristian Lo Cicero, a contact person for the Catania mafia association “Mazzei-Carcagnusi” which also intended to relocate one of its branches to Adrano.
The statements of collaborators of justice Salvatore Giarrizzo and Graziano Pellegriti were a decisive viaticum to the investigation.
The extortions Extortion was the main business of the clan. The episodes are numerous. And, as highlighted by the chief prosecutor Francesco Curcio, apart from one case, none of the blackmailed people ever filed a complaint. The cases, as mentioned, are numerous. The reconstructions made through wiretaps help to reconstruct the unscrupulousness of the clan.
In one of these, just before the Easter holidays, in a meeting between Salvatore Scalidi and Alfio Di Primo, when his interlocutor asked him how to behave with a shopkeeper who had presumably failed to comply with the extortion demand, he suggested that he make a demonstrative gesture with the aim of intimidating the shopkeeper, by firing a gunshot (“una botta”) at his shop.
As the conversation continued, Di Primo, clearly referring to another extortion operation he had entrusted to his associate Scafidi, asked the latter if he had gone to “the pipe dealer” and, having received a negative response, ordered him to take action to start the extortion activity.
And again: “Tell him to start by fixing 5 thousand euros euros”… “but this… 5 thousand euros in my opinion for this reason 5 thousand euros are nothing”.
In one case, one of the associates who, having collected the sum of 25,000 euros from a businessman, had not yet paid the due percentage to the boss Alfredo Di Primo sees the latter hypothesize the murder of his brother-in-law as retaliation. "The... he's blowing me out of proportion... We'll kill his brother-in-law."
In total, 21 people were arrested in the “Primus” blitz.
