https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...gli-stanganelli-estromessi-dagli-affari/the minutes
'Ndrangheta in Gioia Tauro: the «postdated checks» and the fall after the Molè murder. The repentant: «The Stanganellis have been ousted from business»
In Piana the contrasts with the Piromalli and the balances after the death of the boss. The story: «They no longer had criminal weight»
Published: 01/08/2025 – 7:00
GIOIA TAURO After the death of Rocco Molè, the Stanganellis «used this methodology to make money because they had been excluded by the Piromallis from all the criminal activities that were there , from what I knew, because I was inside there when I frequented Gioia Tauro». This is what the collaborator of justice Domenico Ficarra, known as “Corona”, born in 1984 , says, answering the questions of the magistrates of the DDA of Reggio Calabria in reference to the business carried out by the Stanganellis and the criminal balances in the Piana di Gioia Tauro after the killing of the 'ndrangheta boss Rocco Molè on February 1, 2008. The collaborator of justice, who defined himself as «always at the disposal of the Molè family», on the figure of Rocco Molè senior, said that «he was a freemason, he was a high-level person» . An all-round power, however, destined to end.
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The affair of the post-dated checks
" The Stanganellis worked with post-dated checks : they had entrepreneurs change them and then let them go bad. This method of obtaining funds worked until Rocco Molè senior was alive and also for a period after his death. Then when the Stanganellis were also distanced from the Molès, their criminal influence had diminished and even the check business , even though they continued it, was no longer going well ." The collaborator of justice recounts the modus operandi used by the family linked to the Molès, stating that the Stanganellis, after the death of the boss in 2008, were "put aside" both by the Piromallis and by "the Molès themselves." And the business of the checks is illustrated as follows: «These checks were taken to the entrepreneurs…» «They went to change the checks… post-dated, that is with the date, one month, two months… Then they never paid them and they went up in smoke because the checks weren’t even his, they borrowed them from other people». According to Ficarra, the person acting on behalf of the Stanganellis was Domenico Iaropoli, «sent» by Antonio and Domenico Stanganelli. «It’s not something I knew about, – explains Ficarra – it’s something I experienced there, I saw it, even sometimes we were sitting there in the countryside, in the farmhouse and he would send him: “Domenico go., go to this guy and have this check changed”».
Internal conflicts, the death of the boss and the exclusion from business
"After Rocco Molè's death, they had a lot of meetings at the Stanganellis' house," says the collaborator of justice, who also spoke of internal conflicts: "Even before Rocco Molè's death, the relationship between Domenico Stanganelli and Rocco himself was conflictual or rather there were frictions due to the fact that Domenico Stanganelli had become unreliable ." "In any case," he adds, "during the detention of Mommo, Rocco senior and Mico Molè, Domenico Stanganelli was the regent of the gang . Once Rocco was released from prison, Domenico Stanganelli's power was over and he suffered from this situation." But after the assassination of the boss, it was Domenico Stanganelli who went to the Piromallis "to ask for an answer, to have an answer about who had killed his uncle." "He was the one who went," adds Ficarra, "because after Rocco Molè's death, he took over , I know these things because I was there, in the sense of what I saw, eh." And Stanganelli in particular, Ficarra explains further, urged by the public prosecutor, went «to Don Nino and Don Gioacchino Piromalli, the old ones… ».
But the Stanganellis «with the passing of time, since certain episodes occurred, they were devalued and put aside», explains the collaborator of justice, adding that they were «put aside» both by the Piromallis and by the «Molès themselves»: «They no longer had criminal weight» .
