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'Ndrangheta, Alvaro's threat to the former "gold drug dealer". "If I had betrayed him I would have paid with death"
The repentant Vittorio Raso to the prosecutors: «In a letter Agresta was happy with my affiliation». And on his son: «I was afraid he would take my place»
Published: 11/04/2025 – 1:02
LAMEZIA TERME «He told me that theirs was a serious family, that the important families were them, Bellocco, Pesce, Di Stefano, that they were the ones who created the high qualities, the high positions in the 'ndrangheta». And again: «When Domenico warned me, telling me that I shouldn't make mistakes, that he had put his face on the line for me, he told me that, if I had betrayed, I would have paid with my death». In front of the prosecutors of the District Anti-Mafia, Vittorio Raso lined up specific facts and episodes, useful for providing further pieces to the recent investigations into the presence of the 'ndrangheta in Piedmont. Like the recent investigation "Factotum", closed against six suspects.
Raso the “Sold Out” now regretful
Listed for some time among the 100 most dangerous fugitives before being captured in June 2022, Vittorio Raso – nicknamed “Esaurito” and now a collaborator of justice – is considered a leading figure in the Piedmontese ‘ndrangheta. The former gold drug trafficker at the service of the Calabrian clans was convicted of having favored the Crea family (the brothers Adolfo and Aldo Cosimo considered until a few years ago the heads of the Calabrian mafia in Turin) with a role in a series of extortions perpetrated by the wives of the bosses once they had ended up in prison. Heard as a person under investigation in detention, in front of the prosecutors he brings into play one of the most powerful and important exponents of the 'ndrangheta active and rooted for some time in Piedmont: Domenico Alvaro, born in 1977, son of Carmine Alvaro, born in 1953, known as “u cupirtuni”, exponents of the Alvaro 'ndrina, descendants of the “Carni i cani” of Sinopoli.
The Power of the Alvaros
The story of the Alvaros in Piedmont is a story that began a long time ago. Intertwining of territory and criminal business that have already been reconstructed (and sanctioned) by sentences that have already become final. One of the original sentences was issued at the end of the “Prima” trial, which became irrevocable on February 7, 2003, with the conviction of both Domenico Alvaro (class of '77) and Carmine Alvaro (class of '53). A proceeding that, for the first time, allowed the reconstruction of the apparatus of the powerful 'ndrangheta clan. And Raso in front of the prosecutors also speaks of a specific episode, linked to the murder of a man from San Mauro. "Domenico Alvaro told me that they had searched high and low for the person they had then killed" because "they had to avenge a relative of theirs, for an old story that hadn't even started with them... he told me that they had searched for this guy for a long time, that he was condemned to death anyway, he couldn't go anywhere, even in fifty years they would have killed him". And, regarding the murder in San Mauro, Raso explains: "He told me that it was his brother Stefano who shot that person in the head. He only spoke to me about his brother". In a previous interrogation, Raso had spoken to the prosecutors about the possibility that Alvaro would act as godfather to his son. A circumstance that didn't happen because "I was afraid that my son would be called to take my place when he grew up, in the sense that in the 'ndrangheta, the son takes the place of the father, and I wanted to avoid that. I have always kept my son away from these things".
«Never been to Calabria with Alvaro, Calabria is in the North now»
"No, I've never been there with Alvaro," Raso tells the prosecutors who ask him if he's ever been to Calabria. "After all," he says, "Calabria is up in the North, in the sense that it's all up there, I'm referring to all the 'ndrine, the things that are all up in the North, down there's the parent company, the elderly. Then everything is burned down there, there are bugs everywhere, people don't even talk anymore because they're so afraid of being intercepted." And he explains further: "After being affiliated, I went on vacation to Calabria for my own business and not with Alvaro, I went to Scilla, my brother Gino married someone from Scilla, and then I liked it as a place. When I was there I was always careful about what I said..."
«Versaci told me he had joined Volpiano»
There is also room to talk about Michelangelo Versaci (born in 1986), involved in the “Samba” investigation by the Turin DDA because he was considered a fundamental element in «maintaining contacts between the Calabrian 'ndrangheta exponents and those from Piedmont with those in Brazil». From Raso the prosecutors want to know more about Versaci's alleged affiliation to the Volpiano club. «He himself told me, he came to visit me at home the day after my release from prison. Versaci already knew about my affiliation, he knew that I was a good friend of Micu Alvaro because the latter had been in the Padua prison with Antonio Agresta and evidently had then sent the news out, of my affiliation».
Alvaro's letter and the "congratulations" for the affiliation
Raso then tells the prosecutors about another episode, again linked to affiliations. "I remember Alvaro writing me a letter from Padua, from prison, while I was still detained in Alessandria. In that letter he made me understand that Antonio Agresta was with him, that Antonio was happy that I had joined the 'ndrangheta, he also made me understand that Versaci had also been affiliated, and he wrote me something like that once I got out I would have to be close to Versaci who "loves us", in the sense that he was now affiliated, obviously it was all written in code, not explicitly".
So when Versaci told Raso that he had affiliated, the former drug trafficker was actually already aware of it. "He told me that he had affiliated with Antonio Agresta, in the club in Volpiano, who had the "sgarro". In short, he was in the minor, he was like me". And so, Raso tells the prosecutors, «we started working together in that period, I was under house arrest, he was free and we started seeing each other again. He told me that in that period Antonio Murra's former partner, a certain Davidino, worked with the smoke, I don't remember his surname. Versaci told me that in that period they got the smoke from this Davidino who had made himself available for Antonio Agresta, they imported it directly from Spain» . ( g.curcio@corrierecal.it )
