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'Ndrangheta, the boss Girolamo Costanzo «a symbol like Totò Riina» and the lesson to the new recruits of Gaglianesi
The investigation reveals the loyalty (but also the criticism) to the old boss detained in prison and the "pulling of the ears" of the affiliate to the young people
Published: 28/02/2025 – 7:00
CATANZARO On one side the new recruits , unscrupulous young people with easy violence, on the other the “ old guard ” who intervene to settle issues and give lessons to their successors. In the Clean Money investigation , which led to the arrest of 22 people in yesterday's operation, a real generational change emerges within the historic Gaglianesi clan, “re-emerged” in recent years after the investigations that had disjointed it in the past. With the historic boss Girolamo Costanzo in prison and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Pietro Cosimo which occurred in the 90s, new structures and balances involve the Catanzaro 'ndrina. At the top the “uncle” Lorenzo Iiritano is identified as the “regent” , arrested, but the criminal landscape is now also being sprung up with new recruits, ready to take over from the old bosses.
Criticisms of the boss Girolamo Costanzo «a symbol like Totò Riina»
From prison, however, the one who holds the position as the " undisputed and respectable boss " is the boss Girolamo Costanzo. But even he, investigators reconstruct, is not exempt from criticism from his associates who remained outside , including Pietro Procopio (arrested, ed.), according to whom "with his behavior he had created problems for everyone". In the conversation, the historic boss is criticized because "he was in prison even though he was innocent of the Cosimo murder" and because, in choosing his alibi, "he had limited himself to saying that on that occasion he was in the company of a woman". An attitude that would even have made one think of his eventual choice to collaborate with justice. Procopio himself would later say that the real perpetrators of the murder are now deceased, but that even if Costanzo were to leave prison " he would move away from the city, because now the scenario has changed, but he would always remain as a symbol, like the mafia boss Totò Riina ".
“Lessons” for the new generation
A scenario that has also changed due to the presence of new young people. Among these, investigators identify Manuel Pinto and Emanuele Riccelli , both born in 1997 and arrested in yesterday's operation, towards whom Maurizio Sabato , now deceased and considered a historical affiliate of the 'ndrina, holds a real "lesson". Sabato, warned by a third party of a discussion that would have involved Pinto and Riccelli, addresses with a " pull of the ears to the two young people who try to play down the incident due to the fact that perhaps they were all a little drunk". In the conversation, he invites them to "always think about the consequences of what they do". In particular, Riccelli during the discussion with the boy allegedly used the expression " I'll break your face because I'm from Gagliano ", something that Sabato himself did not like "because the consequences would have fallen on him". Even when faced with divisions within the group, feared by Pinto, Sabato «replies that instead they all have to consider themselves linked to each other 'like a chain' ». Therefore, in front of the new recruits, Sabato «sets himself up as a teacher and trainer of the new members regarding the rules of conduct, such as not starting useless fights with other criminal groups and regarding the need to turn to the internal leaders for support and advice». ( ma.ru. )
