Maurizio Riccardi, 47 years old, was ambushed by a machine gun in Foggia. Riccardi from Cerignola (Foggia), is known to the police for facts dating back to about ten years ago. There are at least a dozen shots fired, however the victim remained unharmed.

Full investigation is being carried out to shed light on the murder of Cataldo Cirulli, who was killed on the morning of 31 July in Cerignola, Foggia. The 49-year-old was hit by gunshots in via Urbe, in the Torricelli district, one of the risky districts of the city. The victim was on his scooter.

Investigators do not rule out links with the ambush (failed) to Maurizio Riccardi , 46 years old who escaped death in early June.

But what is going on in Cerignola? The bosses usually try to avoid internal fractures and bloodshed as much as possible, showing great criminal solidity. La Dia has often highlighted the "entrepreneurial" capacity of the local clans , able to penetrate also to the North where the main cosca chiefs would reside. Yet something seems to have broken. The carabinieri, at the moment, make it known that there would be no evidence to hypothesize the involvement of the mafia, but the methods of the ambush are very reminiscent of those adopted by the underworld killers.

Cerignola, assault on a security van on the A14: gunfire and burning cars, road blocked
The ambush in Foggia in the direction of Bari. The bandits set fire to some means to block the motorway and prevent the arrival of the police forces

by TATIANA BELLIZZI
August 10, 2020
FOGGIA - A paramilitary action that lasted a few seconds. Vehicles on fire positioned across the carriageway to block traffic. This is what happened in the afternoon along the A14, in the stretch between Cerignola and Canosa di Puglia, heading south towards Bari.

"There is a column of black smoke visible from a distance - a motorist who has been stuck for more than an hour on the highway will say ": 40, 50 cars blocked. "I saw a bandit come out of a car with a shotgun, at which point I put into reverse and ran away," another driver will say.

The reconstruction is under the attention of the agents of the Cerignola police station. It is 5.15 pm sharp when the robbers come into action. Target a security firm from the security firm IVRI. A commando consisting of at least 8 bandits - the agents rebuild. They blocked the traffic, setting fire to the three cars put across and knocked nails to the ground in the opposite lane heading north. On board the armored car there were three security guards still in shock.

The commando fired several shots, most likely with Kalashnikov rifles. "It seemed to me that a robber threw a paper bomb in the armored car" - reconstructs a witness. But something in the action went wrong. The commandos failed to carry out the assault. At that point they crossed the central reservation, crossed the opposite carriageway.

They fled and lost their tracks in the surrounding countryside. The highway was closed in both directions.

Ambush in Statte, a municipality near Taranto. Eight gunshots were fired in the center, in via Tripoli. A 44-year-old man was hit by four 7.65 caliber bullets in the abdomen and arm. Rescued, he was transported to the Taranto hospital where he is currently hospitalized, but would not be in danger of life. It seems that the ambush was carried out by two people who then fled. According to what has been learned, the victim would have been recalled with a ruse to the window of the apartment where he resides, and once the roller shutter was raised, the rain of fire would have started. The injured man is unprecedented, the investigations do not exclude any hypothesis.

Anti-mafia blitz in Foggia. Drug trafficking dismantled: 16 arrests, including men from the 'Society'
More than 100 soldiers in the field for the 'Araneo' operation, supported by the specialized departments of the Arma, which are carrying out precautionary measures against some subjects, of which a part considered contiguous 'Società foggiana'

Mafia, the hands of the Società foggiana on EU funds: 48 arrests, 4 regional officials in jail and the "king" of the Apulian PSR.

The carabinieri del Ros carried out precautionary measures issued by the Court of Bari against 48 people, all arrested, 41 in prison and 7 under house arrest, under investigation for various reasons for association of type mafia, money laundering, extortion, illicit competition with threats or violence, kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, illegal possession of weapons and explosives, scams to obtain public funds.

The investigation by the Carabinieri, after the capture of the fugitive Francesco Russo in Romania, focused on the "Sinesi-Francavilla" clan, one of the hegemonic mafia organizations in the province of Foggia.

Manlio Cassandro, an agronomist, 61 years old, owner of the homonymous studio in Barletta that deals with European funding, which currently holds the largest number of applications presented in the Region, ended up in prison .

Foggia, 'Decimabis' blitz: dozens of arrests

Anti-mafia blitz in Foggia: the 'Company' on the ropes, barrage of arrests in the 'Decimabis' operation
This is the most important anti-mafia activity carried out in the capital in substantial continuation of the 'Tenth Action'. This time the 'gray area' of the city has been hit

Foggia Today
16 november 2020 07:19

Since dawn today, a maxi anti-mafia operation is underway in the heart of the city of Foggia, called 'Decimabis', by the 'State Squad'. Hundreds of police officers and carabinieri are carrying out a precautionary measure issued against dozens of subjects affiliated and contiguous to the criminal organization of mafia matrix known as the 'Foggiana Society'.

The complex and articulated investigation activity - carried out by a task force composed of investigators from the 1st Division of the Sco, the mobile teams of Bari and Foggia, as well as the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Carabinieri Command of Foggia - also in response to the attacks that took place at beginning of the year in the city, was coordinated by the National Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate, the Bari District Anti-Mafia Directorate and the Foggia Public Prosecutor's Office.

This is the most important anti-mafia activity carried out in the capital in contrasting the criminal pervasiveness of the three batteries 'Moretti / Pellegrino / Lanza' - 'Sinesi / Francavilla' and 'Trisciuoglio / Tolonese / Prencipe', mainly operating in the sector of extortion against local traders and entrepreneurs, in substantial continuation with the previous similar operation against the Foggia mafia crime of 2018, called 'Decima Action'. This time the 'gray area' of the city was also affected. The details of the operation, still in progress, will be provided in the course of the morning.

The mafia in Foggia in Puglia has become public enemy no 1, National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Ferdinando Cafiero De Raho said Monday.
"The Foggia mafia has become the top enemy of the State," he said at a press conference on an operation in which 38 suspected mafiosi were arrested.
Among those arrested were the leaders and associates of three criminal groups operating in the Foggia area, police said.
Two clan leaders, Federico Trisciuoglio and Pasquale Moretti, were taken into custody.
Also arrested was a council official who allegedly tipped off mafiosi to when people had died so they could run extortion rackets on funeral homes, police said.
De Raho said the police response to the local mafia had been "strong" since a quadruple murder on August 9 2017.
"Since then 60 anti-mafia operations have been carried out, 400 people arrested, and dozens of tonnes of drugs seized".

Ambush in San Severo, bloody New Year in the province of Foggia. Two offenders in via Mario Carli were injured
By Francesco Pesante January 1, 2021 OPENING
Far west in a popular neighborhood. Carabinieri and police officers rushed to the scene as well as 118 personnel

Two injured in a shooting this evening in San Severo. Far west scenes in via Mario Carli, a side street of via Apricena, near a neighborhood of public housing. Ambush targets Giacomo Perrone, 39 and Enzo Carano, 30 ; the conditions of the two would not be particularly serious. Carabinieri and police officers as well as 118 personnel rushed to the scene. Investigations underway to reconstruct the dynamics and trace the motives and perpetrators.

Perrone and Carano both had problems with justice.. Perrone also escaped an ambush in 2012. The man escaped death while driving in the city center, near the Verdi Theater.

Italian Mafioso arrested in Barcelona
By Jennifer Leighfield -4 January 2021 @ 13:450

A MEMBER of the Italian mafia who had been on the run for a year has been arrested by National Police in Barcelona.

There was a European arrest warrant against the man, who belonged to the Sacra Corona Unita mafia organisation, and he is facing 20 years in prison for cocaine trafficking.

He had been missing since February 2020 and living under a false identity in Barcelona.

The arrest was coordinated with the Italian police who had advised that the gang he belonged to operated mainly in the south of Italy, especially in the Puglia region.

The criminal court in Lecce, which issued the warrant, considers him to be the main person in charge of organisation, logistics and distribution of cocaine in the area between 2017 and 2020.

At the time of his arrest, the National Police found that he was carrying Italian ID with the name of another person but with his photo. He will appear before a court in Barcelona to arrange his extradition to Italy.

A notorious Italian mafia member operating from the Netherlands has been arrested in Brazil, suspected of cocaine smuggling. In his home in Amsterdam he had paintings of mafia art.

59-year-old Italian Aldo G. has been arrested in Brazil for drug trafficking. Another 24 people were arrested in Italy and Germany. Police have found 25 kilos of cocaine, 90,000 euros in cash and firearms. They seized 4 million euros in money. G. is suspected of directing, financing and organizing large-scale cocaine trade from the Netherlands.

According to the National Police Unit, the arrests are the result of 'years of cooperation between the Dutch' anti-mafia team 'and the Italian authorities.'

Several buildings in Amsterdam and Amstelveen were probably used as storage, the police reports. During searches of Aldo G.'s home and catering establishment, one found, among other things, administration, a money counting machine and 'mafia art'. These are paintings of The Godfather and Scarface , according to the police with an estimated value of 30,000 euros.

Aldo G. is known as a member of the Sacra Corona Unita, the mafia from his native Salento in Italy. He was the focal point for his organization in Amsterdam, which was guilty of a double assassination along the A-12 and was held responsible for the death of a rival clan member in 2017.

The master brain of the organization was Filippo Cerfeda, who became a regret in Italy and later confessed to the murders at the A-12. Aldo G. was acquitted on appeal for the murders, after he had previously been convicted in court .

Italian mafia boss wins legal right to play music in his solitary prison cell
Domenico Strisciuglio turned to the courts to expand his entertainment options beyond watching TV

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...o-play-music-in-his-solitary-prison-cell

Taranto, anti-mafia blitz of the Ros: 16 arrests. The hypothesized crimes range from mafia-type criminal association, to drug trafficking, to political-mafia electoral exchange.

The forgotten Foggian mafia, in the past three decades, internecine fighting between clans in Foggia has resulted in 300 murders, 80 percent of which have been met with impunity.

Foggia is in the grip of the clans, it is going through a very difficult moment: it has been living under criminal attack for years.
The mafia, in Foggia, manages the taxes and the cemetery. It takes the road maintenance contracts, that of traffic lights. And now they have focused on video surveillance, so that they can control every corner of the city at any time. The clans, even those historically opposed - the Moretti-Pellegrino-Lanza, the Sinesi-Francavilla and the Trisciuoglio-Prencipe-Tolonese - have entered into a criminal agreement to have a better ability to influence politics and control of public affairs. In this way, public housing was divided up and over the years they elected councilors and assessors.
The confidential report of the police: "This is why the Municipality should be dissolved for mafia infiltration". The Northern League junta led by Mayor Landella is also targeted.

AMSTERDAM CONNECTION OF THE ITALIAN MAFIA ARRESTED IN BRAZIL
THE FALL OF 'THE PIG'
While he was arrested in Brazil on suspicion of drug trafficking, Dutch police raided his home in Amsterdam. For years, Aldo G. was the capital city connection of the mafia from his native region and was seen as 'the pig' within the organization. How a restaurant owner on the canal, once convicted in the Netherlands for a double murder, turned out to be an international coke trader.

TEXT JOOST VAN DER WEGEN, PHOTOS YOUTUBE EA


They are paintings from the crime films The Godfather and Scarfacethose officers found on February 2 of this year in a house of Aldo G. in Amsterdam. The team of the 'Quick Response Unit' is conducting the raid on behalf of the Anti Mafia team of the Dutch police. She is helping to complete a two-year international investigation into a drug line between Brazil, the Netherlands and Italy. Aldo G. himself is not there. In connection with this, it is held on the other side of the world, in Brazil. During the operation - code-named Skipper - 26 arrests are made, most of them in Italy. The police also found 25 kilos of cocaine, 90,000 euros in cash, and several firearms at various locations. She seizes 4 million euros. It is not an innocent group to which G. seems to belong. And apparently he's not a small fish himself.

Aldo looks angry and seems bitter at the images showing how he is taken away by the Brazilian Federal Police after his arrest. For days, agents have been posting for the luxury 'fazenda' in the newly developed development complex by G. in the coastal tourist town of Recife. His villa park is said to have been built with the money laundered from the drug trade.

Due to an extensive video surveillance system, the police officers cannot directly invade their target. But when G. drives out of the gate after a few days by car, it hits the spot. He is being arrested. A column of SUVs takes Aldo G. to the station.

At that time, the Italian extradition request for G. has already been completed on the court's table. He will undoubtedly return involuntarily to his native country soon.

The friendly and Portuguese speaking Mr. Aldo, as he is known in his neighborhood, thought he could do it in Brazil. But apparently he is not as untouchable as he thought he was.

The Fourth Mafia
Alduino G. is born in Italy on April 8, 1962. He grows up in a town in the Apulia region, on the map located at the tip of the heel of the Italian boot. During his childhood, Aldo's family left the poverty-stricken south of Italy to live in Germany.

At the age of 12 something drastic happens in his life. His father is dying of cancer. A year later he leaves high school, after which he goes to work in the factory and later in the hospitality industry. At the age of 20, Aldo leaves for the Netherlands, where he starts working as a restorer in Amsterdam. He runs a Chinese restaurant, and later opens his own Italian trattoria called Le Delizie, on the Vijzelgracht. If that turns out to be successful, he will open another one later, in Amsterdam South. He lives with his wife and three children in Amstelveen.


But G. is not exactly blemish-free then. In the 1990s, he was sentenced to seven years in prison in Belgium for cocaine smuggling. In prison he comes into contact with criminals from his old native region, who later visit him in Amsterdam. At that time, a separate branch of the mafia has just emerged in that native region: the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU), also called the 'Fourth Mafia' (next to the Cosa Nostra in Sicily, the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria, and the Camorra Naples). The SCU is a criminal organization consisting of approximately two thousand members in those years. They are generally guilty of drug smuggling, trafficking in women, arms trade and fraud.

Support Center Amsterdam
When the 'men of honor' of the SCU are increasingly hunted in the fight against the mafia in Italy, they discover Amsterdam as a suitable hiding place in the 1990s. In Amsterdam, Aldo's restaurant quickly became a popular 'point of support' for them.

As a result, Aldo comes into contact with an Italian mafia member who has fled. His name is Giuseppe Lezzi. This one is not doing well with the restaurant owner. He pressures him and begins to take Aldo his money. He also wants to take over his restaurants from him.

For a moment, Aldo's worries seem to have disappeared when Lezzi is arrested and ends up in the Dutch cell. But Aldo then has to deal with an even more violent leader of the organization, named Filippo Cerfeda. A man who goes by the nickname "Saddam" and who says of himself that he kills without a problem. He is said to have killed about twenty people in Italy.

Years later, as a regret in a mafia trial, he does not bother with the Italian justice: "If I wanted to kill someone, it was done in one second." In Amsterdam he lives up to his violent name.

THE GUNS ARE CLEANING THE FIAT PUNTO WITH THE VICTIMS 'BLOOD IN THE ALDO GARAGE. THEY USE BEER WHEN WATER LACK

Sniffed through
Aldo G. is also humiliated in his relationship with Cerfeda. The criminal uses a restaurant owned by G. as a clubhouse, where food is not always paid for, and sometimes a check is made in the till. G. later declares to a court that he was afraid of the ever-sniffed Cerfeda and his entourage. He calls it dangerous and poisonous. "I had better keep him close because he was insane."

The members of the SCU cannot be happier in the Netherlands at that time. They visit brothels on the assembly line, keep several girlfriends, while the Dutch judiciary does not stand in the way of their criminal activities.

In interrogations of the later 'pentito' Cerfeda, the Italian judges are also surprised that the criminals simply keep the coke they trade in in bags, without having to be afraid of raids. The only practical problem that mafiosi describe at the time is the Amsterdam wheel clamp. The criminals complain that they have to constantly change parking places in which they hide weapons or drugs, in order not to be dragged away and caught by the parking police.


The villa park of Aldo G. in Recife.
New drug lines
It is around 2000 that G. makes a trip to Brazil with Cerfeda, where he makes the first contacts for the later drug lines.

The Portuguese speaking G. loves the exotic atmosphere in that country.

He comes to rest there, but also does 'whores and cords'.

It will not be long before the first drug shipments will be made from Brazil to the Netherlands. But things soon go completely wrong when the violence between the individual Mafia members gets horribly out of hand. First it is Giuseppe Lezzi who is killed in a house on the Churchilllaan by the seconds of Cerfeda. Just before that, Lezzi had been freed from prison in Veenhuizen by his clan mates. His sentence was almost over, but he feared being extradited to his motherland, and so he escaped.

Cerfeda is not happy with Lezzi's return to the city.

Because the latter is trying to reclaim his position, including the cocaine line that Cerfeda ran.

But Lezzi's comeback does not last long. He is ambushed and shot in his house, with a pistol with a silencer.


During Operation Skipper, the police find coke, cash and weapons.
"He just didn't die," Cerfeda would later explain to the Italian justice of the murder.

The mafia boss even says that after this massacre he helped mop up the blood in the house. His body is said to have been buried in the Amsterdamse Bos after the murder, but his remains have never been found.

Aldo is not unhappy with Lezzi's violent end of life. He sees his death as one less problem in his life. But he is not getting rid of Cerfeda for the time being. Together they make another trip to Brazil, about which Aldo claims afterwards that it was not voluntary. Aldo knows people in the city of Santos, and as mentioned, speaks fluent Portuguese. That suits Cerfeda well. But their visits eventually lead to a drug deal that is almost fatal for Aldo.

Stealing drugs
It's all about twenty kilos of cocaine arriving by ship from Brazil to the port of Antwerp on February 21, 2002. The two Brazilian criminals who accompany the drug transport will not retell the story. Cerfeda has decided that he will make a rip deal.

He wants the drugs, but is not going to pay for it. And no one is allowed to retell it.

Cerfeda lives up to its name.

On the A12 Near Woerden, two Italian soldiers from 'Saddam' shoot the Brazilians at close range. They leave the bodies on the roadside and also forget to bring the murder weapon.


The Fiat Punto, which still has the brains and blood of the victims on it, is cleaned by the gunmen in Aldo's garage in Amsterdam. In the absence of water in the garage, beer is used. One of the two perpetrators has to vomit during the job. For Aldo, the shooting gets a very nasty ending.

The bodies are found the next day, and the police start an investigation. But still without result. When Cerfeda is arrested and extradited two years later by the Italian judicial authorities as the head of the SCU, he starts to state about it. As a so-called regret he claims that Aldo G. was guilty of the liquidation of the two Brazilians in the Netherlands. G. would have ordered the double murder.

And although there is only one means of evidence, and there are also indications that Aldo was not involved - for example, he called the number of one of the victims several times at the request of a wife, while he had already been killed - he is prosecuted by the Dutch judicial authorities. G. is transported to court like a real capo in our country: handcuffed, in a car with blinded windows, complete with taped ski goggles. It leads to the worst outcome imaginable for Aldo G. The court in Utrecht sentenced him to life imprisonment.

NOT RARELY HAD ALDO TOGETHER TEN THOUSANDS OF EUROS. 'I TRIED TO DISTANCE, BUT IT WASN'T WORKED . I'M AN FEARED HILL '

Blackmailed
It is the lawyers Geertjan van Oosten and Wim Anker who later successfully challenge this rather remarkable legal decision by Dutch jurisprudence. She succeeds by disproving Fillipo Cerfeda's statements. They discover that this 'bad mafia movie villain' as they call Cerfeda is not very precise in confessing an endless series of crimes. He often tends to exaggerate. He also only comes with his accusation against G. after he has been granted the status of regret, which gives him an interest in accusing as many people as possible as seriously as possible. The Court of Appeal in 2008 also understands this. On appeal, she acquits Aldo G. He told the judges that he had been used and extorted for years by members of the SCU. Unfortunately for G. he is not allowed to leave prison after his victory in court. He is not acquitted for drug trafficking: he is sentenced to seven years in prison. The judge accuses him of acting as a mediator for the Italian drug mafia. So G.'s name is not purified in that area. During an interview in prison in 2009, Aldo told journalists Koen Voskuil and Stan de Jong that he is particularly sorry that he has lost his beloved and successful restaurants in Amsterdam. He can cry about it, and blames the SCU 'scum' that left a trail of death and destruction for years. The judge accuses him of acting as a mediator for the Italian drug mafia. So G.'s name is not purified in that area. During an interview in prison in 2009, Aldo told journalists Koen Voskuil and Stan de Jong that he is especially sorry that he has lost his beloved and successful restaurants in Amsterdam. He can cry about it, and blames the SCU 'scum' that left a trail of death and destruction for years. The judge accuses him of acting as a mediator for the Italian drug mafia. So G.'s name is not purified in that area. During an interview in prison in 2009, Aldo told journalists Koen Voskuil and Stan de Jong that he is particularly sorry that he has lost his beloved and successful restaurants in Amsterdam. He can cry about it, and blames the SCU 'scum' that left a trail of death and destruction for years.

Fled to Milan
But the police in the Netherlands will have known for a long time about the large-scale drug trade that Aldo has been involved in for years. With the proceeds he would even have financed his second restaurant, on Amsterdam's Scheldestraat.

The question therefore arises whether Aldo has indeed fallen victim to the intimidations of the Sacra Corona Unita. In his statements to the police, he admits that, in addition to the earnings from his restaurants, he sometimes traded a kilo of coke, but that he was mainly threatened and intimidated by the mafiosi from his motherland.

Which he says he only provided 'services', such as dinners, cars and houses. Aldo was even seen as 'the pig' within the organization by the Italian gangsters. This is the lowest status imaginable in mafia circles.

G. also says that these men knew where his mother and sister lived and threatened to harm them if he did not cooperate. G. was further known as 'the bank': if one of the mafiosi needed money, they would pay it off from G. Not infrequently this involved tens of thousands of euros. “I tried to distance myself, but that didn't work. I'm a scaredy-cat. ”


Aldo G. in conversation with his lawyers Geertjan van Oosten (left) and Wim Anker.
Aldo states that he could not even morally make a decision to kill people, such as the two Brazilian drug dealers. During the trial, one of his lawyers stated that after hearing the news of the double murder on the radio, he burst into tears and fled to relatives in Milan in fear of Cerfeda.

Life destroyed
To the two journalists who visit him, G .: “My life has been destroyed. What I have built with those restaurants is gone. For good. Fortunately, I have a wonderful wife who supports me, just like my children. ”

When visiting time is over, G. wants to say the following to the two: “I became a Buddhist. I meditate every day. ”

He would have returned to work in restaurants when his sentence was over. Until the police arrest him on February 2, 2020 as part of the extensive Italian drug investigation in Recife, Brazil, and raid his premises in Amsterdam. The paintings of world-famous figures from gangster films in his house illustrate what has become of 58-year-old Aldo G. Whether or not he was intimidated by his criminal compatriots, he will be remembered as a man who has been involved in drug crime for most of his life. Aldo G. was the Mokum connection of the Italian mafia. 

FROM LIFE TO ACQUITTAL FOR ALDO G.
It was a milestone in Wim Anker's career, but also a historic event in crime history. The well-known Frisian criminal lawyer still remembers well how, together with colleague Geertjan van Oosten, he managed to get Aldo G.'s life sentence reversed in court on appeal to an acquittal. The lawyer was responsible for the plea about the lifelong nature of the sentence. Anchor about this:

"I had often been nibbled by a high conviction, but this was really spectacular."

The sentence of life had been imposed on Aldo G. by the court in Utrecht for the alleged double murder of two Brazilian cocaine smugglers. "The evidence wasn't exactly abundant," says Anker. With his colleague, and the Attorney General of the Court, he traveled to Italy to interrogate witness and mafia regret Fillipo Cerfeda in the case. "He seemed icy and creepy," the two counsel later explain during the appeal.

After that, the Court in Amsterdam acquitted Aldo G.

He found Cerfeda's testimony in his role as an agent of regret implausible. This is evident from the testimony of Cerfeda's right-hand man, Fabio Franco, who indicated that Cerfeda was greatly exaggerating in his statements. The Court also does not believe the stated motives for the murders.

The story was that G. would want to erase traces and he would also have been in need of money.

But none of that was the case.

Wim Anker remembers his client Aldo G., but he did not get to know him well during the trial: "He was a closed man, who did not show the back of his tongue."

99 mafia arrests in Bari
City is freer says mayor

(ANSA) - BARI, APR 26 - Italian police on Monday arrested 99 people suspected of being members of the Puglian Mafia, the Sacra Corona Unita (United Holy Crown, SCU), in Puglian capital Bari.
The alleged leaders and associates of Bari's Strisciuglio clan have been charged with mafia association, drugs and weapons offences, extortion, grievous bodily harm and affray.
The arrest warrant for the 99 said they had exerted an "asphyxiating control" of local businesses with protection rackets.
A prison riot involving 41 inmates in January 2016 helped change the balance between the clans, police also said.
Bari Mayor Antonio Decaro hailed the police operation saying "today Bari is freer and can look to the future with more confidence".
He said the police had landed a "very heavy blow" on the local Mob.
The SCU is Italy's fourth and smallest mafia after Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, Sicily's Cosa Nostra and Campania's Camorra.
(ANSA).

"City is freer says mayor"

Yeah right...even if it's the SCU we're talking about, it's a matter of time before there are 99 others on the street ready to kick it up a notch.

Former Carabinieri officer shot dead in Puglia
Victim was discharged from service last year

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 4 - A former Carabinieri police officer, Silvano Nestola, was shot dead early on Tuesday in Copertino in the southern region of Puglia,, sources said.
The 46-year-old, who had been stationed in the province Lecce, was discharged from service in September.
He was shot at least seven times and his body was found on a dirt round near a villa, the sources said.
Investigators are trying to track down a hooded man who was seen fleeing the murder scene, the sources said. (ANSA).

A precautionary custody order against 35 suspects is carried out by the Carabinieri in Bari, in the province and in other Italian locations against alleged members of a group of drug dealers. 12 people are also challenged to be leaders and participants in an association dedicated to drug trafficking contiguous to the Palermiti clan.

Foggia, shot dead while celebrating Italy. Serious injured 6 year old nephew.
The victim was already known to the police. His brother also died in an ambush

San Severo (Foggia) - He was celebrating Italy's victory with his six-year-old nephew, aboard a scooter, when he was the victim of an ambush. The victim is Matteo Anastasio, a 42-year-old offender from San Severo, Foggia. The child was also seriously injured and is now in the intensive care unit of the "Riuniti" polyclinic in Foggia due to the injuries to the abdomen. He is in a medically induced coma and the prognosis is reserved.

The ambush took place after midnight yesterday, in via Matteotti, while the celebrations for Italy were underway. The man and his nephew were aboard a moped when they were joined by two people, also aboard a scooter and wearing full-face helmets so as not to be recognized, who fired at least four or five gunshots. Anastasio died immediately after being transported to the emergency room of the Masselli Mascia hospital in San Severo, while the child was injured when he fell from the scooter.

A long trail of blood
Anastasio is an old acquaintance of the police force. In 2017 his brother Giuseppe was killed, murdered at the age of 33 always in San Severo. Giuseppe Anastasio was killed with a few shots of 7.65 pistol, the same caliber of the weapon used to kill his brother Matteo yesterday. Giuseppe Anastasio was convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl, Stella Costa, in 2002 by firing a few gunshots at another man. One of the bullets hit the little girl who had taken to the street, with her mother, to throw out the garbage.

Looks like the Puglian clans are a lot more violent than the other groups?

Yes the last years Puglia is the most violent region in Italy, there are many divisions within the Mafia groups and they don't have a central governing body.

They got CN in that region I think as well, Ninetta Bagarella moved out that way in 2014 with her kids. I’m pretty sure that was part of what made but the Cupola 2.0 possible, it makes Southern Italy, one force of such now.

Similar to when Provenzano washed the hands of all involved in the wars in Sicily and the return of Inzerillo, at some point they all are taken direction from the P2 like structure and players.

The killing of witnesses in PC kinda lends to the existence of that type of structure (P2, P3, P4?), does anyone have an articles in that specifically? Thanks!

Through the prison system all mafias have forged close links there are 189 penal institutions for adults, 17 for minors.

Murder in San Severo: gunshot ambush in Corso Leone Mucci, one dead and two wounded
Foggia Today
August 14, 2021 6:07 pm
One person died and two others were injured in the ambush that took place this afternoon in San Severo. The incident happened around 4.40 pm today, in Corso Leone Mucci.

According to preliminary information, a young local, Luigi Bonaventura , born in 1989, with a precedent for narcotics , ended up in the sights of the killers .

The man, who was walking near a car wash, was surprised by a shower of bullets: dozens of shots, exploded - it seems - with a machine gun. Seriously injured, the man died shortly after.

Two other people were also smeared: it is a 27 and a 12 year old, who were accidentally along the road.

On the spot the police - mobile squad and San Severo police station - who will investigate the case. It is not excluded, but it is a first hypothesis, that the ambush may be connected to the Anastasio murder , which took place a month ago, during the celebrations for Italy's victory at the European football championships.

A 31-year-old from Bari, Ivan Lopez, was killed last night in an ambush in the San Girolamo district of Bari. The man, with a criminal record for robbery, was hit by at least three gunshots.
The San Girolamo district is one of the districts of the city where the Mafia clan Strisciuglio operates. The victim is not affiliated with the clan, but at the moment the investigative hypothesis is in any case that of a crime matured in the criminal sphere, even if no track is excluded.

50 mn euros seized from Molfetta businessman
Villa, yacht taken from ex-narco trafficker

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 1 - Italian police on Friday seized some 50 million euros in assets from the best-known construction entrepreneur in the Puglia city of Molfetta outside Bari, a former drug trafficker.
Real estate, company shares, current accounts, luxury cars and goods, a plush seaside villa, and a yacht were seized from Giuseppe Manganelli, 52.
Police said the man built his business and property empire from ill-gotten gains.
Manganelli has been convicted in the past of robbery, conspiracy to traffic drugs and extortion.
He has been linked to the local mafia.
Molfetta Mayor Tommaso Minervini said "plaudits to the magistrates and the police for today's actions safeguarding legality.
"This is tangible proof that the State and the institutions are working daily against all forms of crime". (ANSA).

Mafia op in Foggia area nabs 32 suspects
On charges of mafia association, attempted murder

ROME, DEC 7 - The ROS special branch of Italy's Carabinieri police in Foggia, Puglia, carried out an operation on Tuesday to arrest 32 people charged, among other things, with mafia association aggravated by arms and drug dealing, attempted murder, illegal detention of weapons and money laundering.
Additional charges included extortion, fictitiously registering property, aggravated fraud and theft and receiving stolen goods.
Investigators said charges are aggravated by the mafia-style method as the alleged crimes were aimed at promoting the activity of mafia groups in the province of Foggia, in particular in the areas of Manfredonia, Mattinata, Macchia and Vieste.
The arrest warrants were issued by the court of Bari at the request of the anti-mafia and anti-terrorism district attorney's office.

A 32-year-old man, Pietro Russo, with a minor criminal record, was shot dead on the door of his home on the outskirts of Foggia.