Hey Hollander I just read some articles saying that this man wasn't mob-affiliated and that the murder had nothing to do with organized crime. But what do you think? I call bullshit, personally.

I think the papers over there have a habit of denying mob connections, especially when we know the towns in those regions are completely polluted with mob infiltration.

I would say that perhaps the hit wasn't mob-related, but hell no to the claim that he had no organized crime connections. I can meet them halfway.

Probably connected, it has been quiet lately in Foggia but some time ago it was crazy with all the murders and a wave of bomb attacks.

02 FEBRUARY 2022 08:39
Mafia, drugs and extortion: 38 arrests and 20 under investigation in Taranto
The maxi operation vanquished a group accused of mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion and illegal carrying of weapons

The Taranto mobile squad arrested 38 people (28 of whom ended up in prison and 10 under house arrest) accused in various ways of mafia association, criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and other crimes including extortion , detention and illegal port of weapons and ammunition , personal injury. Another 20 people are under investigation as part of the same operation.

The operation is the result of a long investigation by the Taranto mobile squad, carried out with the support of the central anti-crime department of the police.

Inside Italy’s most brutal mafia clan who execute enemies in ‘Ritual of Death’ with point blank shotgun blasts to face

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17511652/inside-notorious-italian-mafia-societa-foggiana/

Historical names of Salento crime appear in an anti-mafia investigation that resulted in a blitz carried out in the night by the carabinieri. Drugs, extortion, usury to the detriment of some traders and infiltration into the municipal apparatus, in particular in the town of Aradeo in the logic of the exchange vote. Fifteen arrests.

The organization referred to the Coluccia clan, one of the historical associations active for decades in Salento, in particular in the territories of Galatina and neighboring countries. The associates had weapons at their disposal; they managed the sale of drugs, demanding payment of the so-called "point" by the drug dealers. And they had also infiltrated the political-administrative centers of power through the exchange vote. A political-mafia pact with representatives of local administrations. A branching, according to the papers, managed by Michele Coluccia, indicated as the chief promoter. In particular in a town in the Salento hinterland, in exchange for economic benefits.

Money laundering, maxi operation: 59 arrests and 23 million seized. Three Bari lawyers involved
Crimes of conspiracy aggravated by transnationality aimed at tax fraud, money laundering and self-laundering, drug trafficking and extortion
Tax fraud of considerable value, for an illegal volume of business of approximately 170 million euros, implemented through the indication of fictitious VAT credits deriving from non-existent passive operations indicated in the tax returns in the absence of the related invoices.
Precisely in the phase of the 'monetization' of the illicit proceeds, the involvement of the Bari organized crime would have emerged, able to recruit numerous 'fiduciaries' to hold credit cards with which to drain, according to a pre-established timing, the provisions illegally obtained by the organization for the subsequent reinvestment also in drug trafficking.

On Friday Roberto Russo, 52 was shot dead, the latest victim of the ruthless Foggia underworld.
Russo is not a new face to investigators. In 2003 he was involved in a vast anti-drug operation between Foggia and Cerignola, the "Pleiadi" blitz. In 2020 he too ended up on TV, intercepted by "Le Iene" during a report on the Foggia mafia.

"Game Over" for the Briganti clan: seventeen arrests are made at dawn for mafia, drugs, extortion and weapons
April 8, 2022

LECCE - The blitz that at dawn today led to the arrest of seventeen people believed to belong to the Briganti clan of Lecce was called "Game Over".

The vast operation is underway between Lecce and its province by the State Police, which is carrying out a precautionary detention measure issued by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Lecce Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office - District Anti-Mafia Directorate - for crimes of mafia-type criminal association, association aimed at trafficking and marketing drugs, extortion and violation of the law on weapons.

Further details will be announced at a press conference.

A 17-year-old was arrested on charges of voluntary murder and illegal carrying of a firearm for the murder of Salvatore Lombardi, the 30-year-old killed last night with gunshots in San Severo (Foggia), in via Fortore.

The assassin also fired a gunshot to the back of the head. According to what is learned, the young man, after having committed the crime, he returned home and contacted the police to turn himself in.

It is the son of a man who was injured in an ambush on January 1, 2021 and died a month later. At first it was assumed that the murder had been committed to avenge the death of the parent, but the boy, during the interrogation before the prosecutor of the Bari Juvenile Court, denied this version. In fact, the prosecutor did not contest his premeditation. At the moment the gun has not been found.

Editorial board
April 18, 2022 11:47 am

Rain of anti-mafia arrests in the Foggia area: over 200 'High Impact' arrests in the first 100 days
Hundreds of law enforcement officers belonging to the State Police, the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza, have searched the province of the 'Fourth Mafia'

17 operations and 202 arrests: this is the balance of the first 100 days of the articulated 'High Impact' prevention device strongly desired by the Minister of the Interior Luciana Lamorgese through the use of numerous special and reinforcement departments sent to the Capitanata by the ministry of the Interior to strengthen territorial control and crime fighting services.

"There will be the presence of departments framed for high-impact operations that will be done constantly" he announced on January 15 on the sidelines of the committee for public order and safety held in the offices of the Foggia Prefecture in the presence of the Chief of Police Lamberto Giannini, the general commanders of the carabinieri and the financial police, the national anti-mafia prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho, the extraordinary commissioner for the coordination of anti-racket and anti-usury initiatives Giovanna Cagliostro and the heads of the local prosecutor and the anti-mafia district management of Bari.

Arriving in Foggia after the seven bomb attacks of the first eleven days of 2022, the number one of the Interior Ministry had emphasized the concern on the part of organized crime but at the same time the presumption of thinking they are strong and demonstrating it through the noise of the bombs.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers belonging to the State Police, the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza, thus began to sift the length and breadth of the province of the 'Fourth Mafia', enemy number one of the state and first in Italy for extortion offenses.

However, the first operation in response to the resurgence of intimidating acts for extortion purposes carried out in the first days of the year to the detriment of commercial operators in Foggia and San Severo, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor's Office, was taken at the first light of dawn on 15 January.

Another 16 will follow. That of 21 January in the capital of Dauno and in the city of the Alto Tavoliere for a total of five arrests; of January 26 in San Severo and Monte Sant'Angelo (three arrests), of January 27 (eight subjects arrested). And again: 14 arrests on 3 February, another 14 on 6 of the same month, 12 arrests on 12 and 14 on 15, again in February. Ten arrests on the 18th, fifteen on the 25th.

Rain of precautionary measures also in March: sixty in all in four operations. There are three 'High Impact' operations in April: 43 people arrested.

Mafia of Foggia, the "criminal baptism" of children and human blood drunk as a sign of silence. The rites inherited from the Camorra and Ndrangheta
By Francesco Pesante June 26, 2022 OPENING
Even before Villani, the repentant Caiafa spoke of the modalities of affiliation to the "Society". The godfather invoked the old founders Count Ugolino, Fiorentin of Russia and Cavalier of Spain

Affiliate rites also in Foggia? The revelations of the recent repentant of the Foggia mafia , Patrizio Villani do not seem to be a novelty in the judicial world. As early as 1995, another justice collaborator revealed disturbing details on the links of organized crime in the Daunian capital with the 'Ndrangheta and the Camorra. The clans of Foggia and its province, in fact, have always been influenced by the Calabrian and Campania organizations, still allied and in business with the Foggia batteries. The Sinesi-Francavilla closest to the 'Ndrangheta, the historic affiliation of Roberto Sinesi to Franco Coco Trova from Catanzaro , while the Moretti-Pellegrino-Lanza batteryand the Sanseveresi criminal groups have points in common with the Camorra. Even the mountaineers Li Bergolis-Miucci-Lombardone , allies of Sinesi, would wink at the Calabrians and do business with them. This is demonstrated by the anti-mafia operation "Friends" of 2019 .

Children swear allegiance to the mafia
An old article in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno reported the reconstruction of Donato Caiafa known as "Giacchetta" , a penitent from Sansevero who in 1995, in the Court of Appeal in Bari, during a trial of the clans, unveiled the rite of affiliation reserved for the children of criminals . “In Puglia there is a double baptism”. According to the journalistic study of the time, the ritual involving the little ones comes from Calabria. The families of the 'Ndrangheta, like all Catholic families in Italy, baptize their newborn children. At the age of 6-7, unbeknownst to the mothers, these children undergo a second baptism, the criminal one. The rite is equally austere, fomented by the fathers, by the already grown brothers, by the uncles. Children recite the formula by which they swear eternal loyalty to the organization. According to Caiafa, the "double baptism" was already practiced in Foggia and San Severo.

Baptismal formulas

When the commission meets for the entry of new followers, it creates a series of baptismal formulas , first of the room where the ceremony is held (the cells are baptized in prison), then of what is called "the armor ”(A needle or a razor blade) which will serve in the“ function ”. The "copied" therefore reunites. The Godfather exclaims: "Good morning, good morning, with one hand I light the lantern and with the other I light up and I say: good morning, good morning to you, wise comrades, are we compliant?". Those present declare themselves "Very Compliant". And the godfather resumes declaring to “Reunite companies as our three old founders of the Camorra, Conte Ugolino, Fiorentin of Russia and Cavalier of Spain reunited.If they reunited it with mind, speech and seriousness, I reunite it with honor, esteem and fidelity ".

"Mouth of silence"

In the rite of loyalty, the adept must recite the so-called formulas of the "tirata", the "oath" or the "veil". Taking the so-called "armor", previously baptized, the adept wounds on the right forearm (but the rule would like under the right armpit) the member of the commission who is about to introduce him into the organization. After drinking some blood that gushes from the wound, holding the "armor" in his hand, he recites the formulas. One of these tells of a duel that culminates in an injury.

“What have you done with that blood?” Asks the commission. "I drank it," is answered. “ So are you a human blood drinker? ". “Halt, wise comrade, as you well know I am not a drinker of human blood, but from a vein of silence it went out and into a mouth of silence it entered. I have done nothing but unite two souls in one body ". (Top, center, Caiafa and the ranks of the mafia; below, Vincenzo Pellegrino, Rocco Moretti, Raffaele Cutolo and Vito Bruno Lanza)

“Reunite companies as our three old founders of the Camorra, Conte Ugolino, Fiorentin of Russia and Cavalier of Spain reunited..If they reunited it with mind, speech and seriousness, I reunite it with honor, esteem and fidelity"

Familiar with Count Ugolino but who were the other two?
Looks like masonic rites though.

Mafia in Bari: request for indictment of 45 affiliates of the Gargano clan
01 October 2022
The preliminary hearing will be held on 11 November

The prosecutors of the DDA of Bari, Ettore Cardinali and Luciana Silvestris, have asked for the indictment of 45 defendants, almost all of them Gargano involved in the Omnia Nostra investigation which resulted on 7 December 2021 in the arrest of 32 people. The preliminary hearing will be held on 11 November in front of the Gup of Bari.

They are accused in various ways of mafia as affiliated to the Romito Ricucci Lombardi clan in the area of ??Manfredonia, Mattinata and Monte Sant'Angelo and to the Raduano clan of Vieste. Of two murders in 2017, that of Giuseppe Silvestri which took place in Monte Sant'Angelo, and of Omar Trotta in Vieste, both connected to the wars of the Gargano mafia and the attempted murder of Giovanni Caterino, alleged basist of the San Marco in Lamis massacre.

Among the charges, there are also drug dealing, extortion and robbery, scams, money laundering and fraudulent transfer of values. Among the 45 defendants there are also 5 repentants. According to the indictment, at the top of the Romito Ricucci Lombardi clan were Matteo Lombardi (sentenced to life imprisonment in the first degree for murder of Silvestri), Mario Luciano Romito (killed in the San Marco in Lamis massacre of 9 August 2017) and Pasquale Ricucci ( killed in Macchia, a hamlet of Monte Sant'Angelo in November 2019).

Fiorentin of Russia and Cavalier of Spain who were they?

Count Ugolino

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugolino_della_Gherardesca

Extortion, theft and receiving stolen goods: nine arrests in Foggia
Most of the victims were the merchants of the city, some of the managers believed to be affiliated with the "Company"

The military of the Guardia di Finanza of Foggia arrested nine people held responsible for extortion, theft, receiving stolen goods and illicit possession of weapons. The investigations, directed by the Public Prosecutor of Foggia, began following an extortion carried out in the manner of the "return horse", consisting in asking the victims of theft for a ransom to get back what was stolen.

In the course of the investigations, the financiers reconstructed several episodes of extortion and theft against traders, also seizing weapons and ammunition in the availability of some of the suspects believed to be close to the “Società foggiana”, the Foggia mafia. In addition to the arrests, eleven searches were also carried out, with the help of dog units, in the Candelaro district, in the former ONPI building and in other districts of the city. At the disposal of the investigating judge of the Court of Foggia, 4 people ended up in prison and another 5 under house arrest.

Bari councilwoman arrested for mafia vote buying
Francesca Ferri held with Foggia soccer club head, drug charges

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 26 - A Bari councilwoman was arrested for mafia vote buying on Wednesday.
Francesca Ferri, a municipal councillor for the centrist Italia Popolare party, was among 19 people arrested in the provinces of Bari, Taranto and Palermo.
Also placed under house arrest was Nicola Canonico, a businessman and president of the Foggia Calcio soccer club, who had served as Puglia regional councillor and Bari town councillor in the past.
Those arrested have also been charged with drug pushing and extortion. (ANSA).

Albino Prudentino powerful boss of Sacra Corona Unita.

Agostino Corvino, 50, with criminal records, was shot dead in Foggia. He was a nephew of the boss Raffaele Tolonese of the Trisciuoglio-Prencipe-Tolonese clan of the Società Foggiana

So far 13 mobsters have been killed in Foggia in 2022.

At least five people are suspected of the murder of Agostino Corvino.
The suspects would all be attributable to the Foggia mafia, even taking into account the fact that the victim was the nephew of a well-known local boss.
Only one person would shoot, armed with a machine gun and with his face covered by a full-face helmet. Corvino was celebrating his fiftieth birthday in front of a drinks kiosk and there he was killed by a barrage of shots.

Drug trafficking between Italy and Albania: the megablitz is triggered, 14 arrests. More than two thousand kilos seized
14 arrests made by Dia, including nine Italians. The Apulian underworld imported cocaine and heroin from Albania and then sold it to other organizations in the South

More than two tons of drugs seized, for a value of 15 million euros and 14 arrests, made by the Anti- Mafia Investigation Directorate , which has broken up an international traffic of drugs - cocaine, marijuana and heroin - between Italy and Albania ; nine Italians in handcuffs and five Albanians, following a long investigation that began in May six years ago, in 2016. In the blitz against the Italian-Albanian narcos , the investigators seized seven million single doses.

Complex investigation
The operation, already in 2018, had disarticulated two powerful and distinct criminal organizations, operating in the Bari area with ramifications in Albania, but also in other regions of southern Italy, Sicily, Campania, Calabria and Abruzzo which imported drugs from Albania, by sea using equipped boats and the landing took place in close synergy with the Apulian criminal organizations.

Albania-Apulia connection
Precisely in the Carrassi district of Bari, the DIA has located a warehouse for the storage of drugs and identified an Albanian, at the head of one of the two criminal organizations capable of making use of Italian multiple offenders, some of whom have already been convicted of mafia-type association. The complex investigations, carried out with the aid of telephone interceptions, environmental interceptions, video recordings and observation, stalking and control services, had made it possible, among other things, to arrest at sea, in Polignano, two smugglers from Albania with over one ton of drugs, an Italian courier with over a thousand kilos of marijuana.

What is the new mafia in Italy?
The new mafia in Italy or fourth mafia refers to the organized crime in the province of Foggia. It is located in the north of Puglia, a region that is wedged between the Adriatic and Ionian seas. Apart from Foggia (150,000) inhabitants, this mafia is also very present in smaller towns in the hinterland such as San Severo and Cerignola. It is even active in Gargano, the promontory on the Adriatic Sea, known for its nature and religion (Monte Sant’Angelo, San Giovanni Rotonda). The term ‘the fourth mafia’ is used, among others, by Antonio Laronga, a assistant attorney in Foggia who wrote a book about it.

How is the new mafia organized in italy?
The fourth mafia is called ‘Società’, literally translated as ‘society’ or ‘enterprise’. The Società is divided into so-called batteries. Almost each city has one, two or more batteries. Each battery is built around a family and is fairly autonomous. There is no such thing as an umbrella body, like the Cupola in Sicily. Due to a lack of coordination, violent mafia wars have regularly broken out over the last 20 years.

Because of the strong family ties, the batteries are quite difficult to dismantle by the authorities. Well known batteries are those of the combined Moretti-Pellegrino-Lanza families and those of the Sinesi and Francavilla families.

Since when does the new mafia in Italy exist?
Officially, this organization has only existed since 1999. In that year the Supreme Court recognized that certain groups in and around Foggia could be characterized as ‘mafia’. But if we take not the judicial verdict, but history as reference, it appears that the fourth mafia shot its first roots in 1979. The probable beginning is when the Camorra (mafia from Campania with capital Naples) led by the powerful Raffaele Cutulo, wanted to expand its organization into Apulia (Apulia and Campania border each other).

Wasn’t Sacra Corona Unita considered the fourth mafia?
Often the Sacra Corona Unità is identified as thé mafia in Puglia, and should therefore be considered as the fourth mafia in the country. Perhaps this has to do with the name, which is quite sinister and mysterious. Sacra Corona Unità means translated United Holy Crown. In reality the Società is much more powerful (and violent). The Sacra Conona Unità is according to Laronga and involved persons I spoke to hardly relevant anymore. The Corona had (has) its base mainly in the Salento region, in the extreme south of Apulia.

https://italystart.com/new-mafia-in-italy/

MAFIAS - 27 DECEMBER 2022
Foggia between murders, clans and a few magistrates. The prosecutor: “Even my colleagues don't want to stay here. There is a judicial desert, the state is perceived far away"

THE INTERVIEW - Fifteen people killed in 2022, the mafia affected but not eradicated and many crimes among young people. Ludovico Vaccaro speaks: "Only one office for a territory the size of Liguria. There are 13,000 pending trials. Up until recently I had an organic gap in the prosecutor's office of eight magistrates, nobody wants to come here"

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/mafie/

Foggia mafia murder victims 2022.

Roberto Russo
Alessandro Scrocco
Alessandro Scopece
Giuseppe Ciociola
Giuseppe and Pasquale Cirillo
Giuseppe Rendina
Francesco D'Augelli (17)
Maurizio Cologno
Andrea Gaetta
Gerardo Tammaro
Nicola Di Rienzo (21)
Agostino Corvino

With all due respect, many of those murders weren't mob-related.

They are linked to the underworld or drug world by the authorities. Only the two youngsters were killed in an fight. But most have been part of vendettas. There was also a lot of other violence , bombings etc..

Drugs, extortion and an attempted murder: 15 arrests are made at dawn

https://news.italy24.press/local/329189.html