Illicit mafia competition, extortion, usury and money laundering. With these accusations the Bari economic-financial police nucleus and the central organized crime investigation service of Rome (Scico) arrested 36 people. The arrests following an investigation into gambling with particular reference to the installation and management of video poker machines in commercial establishments and game rooms in the Apulian capital. Some of the arrested belong to the Anemolo, Strisciuglio and Capriati clans. The seizure of assets of 7.5 million euros is expected.

Salvatore Riina wife was living in Bari, if remember correctly in and around 2014. There has been a massive up tick in that part of Southern Italy ever since.

Two murder attempts in recent days. Mirko Monaco, 36, was shot and injured in the city of Lecce, his brother Giampaolo is a former turncoat of the Scu. In Taranto yesterday evening a 25 year old was also shot and injured.

It was said that the murder of Rocco Sollecito in Montreal had closely affected Puglia, a mass for him in Bari was banned by the Catholic Church.

The same thing happened to John Papalia in Hamilton, I believe it has to do with their connection to the West Coast of Sicily and it’s overall influence of the Masonry that the Sacred Southern Italian Criminal ascribes to. Leoluca Bageralla is one of the few Corleonese, that was with Leggio, that is still alive. Bagarella is/was still a huge influence in Reggio, Calabria.

Meaning some for obvious reasons don’t want Mafiosi/Dons buried in the Church. Others, see it as an opportunity to conceal the actions, and continue to pursue the overall goal. ‘Return back to Roma, under Caesar, the God/Goddess.’

The SCU is made up of three distinct groupings or levels. Members can 'graduate' from one level to the next by going through riti battesimali (baptismal rites). The religious symbolism is probably left over from the SCU's association with the Camorra.

Società Minore – The lowest level. Is made up of lower-level criminals who do street-level activities. Members start out as picciotti and go through a 40-day trial to ensure they are suitable for criminal work and are not associated with the police. They are then inducted into the next phase of the level, the manovalanza, or worker. The candidate must also swear an oath of devotion to SCU.
Società Maggiore – The second level. Is made up of two positions.
Lo Sgarro – The position is given only to members who have killed at least three people for SCU, and from now on members cannot leave, on pain of death. Members can now form their own crew of picciotti, known as a filiale. Upon indoctrination into the La Santa position the member is given a firearm (to symbolically use on oneself upon failing SCU), a cyanide pill, cotton (representing Monte Bianco, which is considered sacred), a lemon (treating the wounds of one's comrades), a needle to puncture the index finger of the right hand, handkerchiefs (representing purity of spirit) and a spartenza (a gift of some sort, usually cigarettes).[5]
Società Segreta– The final level. Is the core of the organization where key decisions are made.
The Sacra Corona Unita consists of about 50 clans with approximately 2,000 members and specializes in smuggling cigarettes, drugs, arms, and people. The Sacra Corona Unita collects payoffs from other criminal groups for landing rights on the southeast coast of Italy.

Italy to strengthen anti-mafia task force after bomb in Foggia
Sacra Corona Unita tried for the second time to blow up a key trial witness

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ti-mafia-task-force-after-bomb-in-foggia

22 arrests for Italy-Albania drug trafficking on the Andria-Cerignola axis: Foggia, the operating center of the international store.
The wide-ranging investigative developments have made it possible to document how two related criminal organizations dedicated to international drug trafficking operated in two distinct areas of northern Bari, one between Cerignola and Foggia and one between Andria and Barletta.
The investigations developed following the murder of Francesco Ferrante, alias Geppetto, which took place in Trani in January 2015, killed with a shot in the head while he was about to close his recreational club. The complex investigations have also made it possible to ascertain how the bloody fact of blood had matured in the world of drugs in which Ferrante tried to impose himself.
To manage the import of the drug from Holland, Germany and Albania was an Albanian citizen who, through his compatriots domiciled in northern Europe, provided the criminal organizations operating on the Italian territory with excellent quality cocaine and heroin, as well as large quantities of marijuana and hashish, weaving a network that also developed in Holland, Germany and England.

The Albanians have established good relations with the SCU I heard

Yes the Mafia Shqiptare works closely with them they have to pay the SCU for landing rights on the southeast coast of Italy. Also the Puglians have a presence in Tirana from where they have been controlling traffick and to stay away from Italian LE. The SCU in recent years even ordered murders in Albanian underworld.

In 2014 Padenghe at Lake Garda hosted the "top" of the 'Ndrangheta and SCU, the summits were held in the villa of Salvatore Barone from Taurianova. On top of the agenda was the release of the boss Umberto Bellocco after 21 years in prison.
The representatives of the Sacra Corona Unita were Teodoro Crea and Cataldo Caporosso, director of the infiltration of organized crime in the Taranto fish market and of the trafficking of cocaine. All the criminal strategies of the association would have been endorsed by the 80-year-old Umberto Bellocco who would have met Cataldo Caporosso entrusting him with the position of boss.

Macabre find this morning in province of Foggia, in the locality of Simeone in the countryside of Torremaggiore, where the dead body completely burned of a man inside a car.

The body could be of Leonardo Selvaggio, the 56-year-old whose traces were lost from last Friday afternoon in San Severo in the following hours the family members, including his son, had reported the disappearance through an appeal on Facebook.

How the tiny Italian city of Foggia became a mafia battleground

https://www.euronews.com/2020/01/22/how-the-tiny-italian-city-of-foggia-became-a-mafia-battleground

Authorities in Puglia have been using drones with heat-sensitive cameras to track a big black animal, believed to be a panther, owned by a mafia boss.

The animal was seen on January 15 by Nicola Chiarappa, 30, who owns a fireworks factory near San Severo.

At first Mr Chiarappa thought the beast was a dog, but changed his mind after taking a closer look. “It turned round and I saw its face. It had two sharp teeth,” he said. “Then it jumped on to the bonnet of my car and ran off. It was over very quickly.”

Some panther footprints have also been found, which vets are analyzing.

In addition, a goat was found slaughtered and a Maremma breed dog was found injured.

At the moment the panther would have already traveled about ten kilometers, according to investigations.

Origin - How does a panther end up in Puglia? Investigators speculate that a mafia boss, who would have possessed the ferocious animal as a symbol of power, may have something to do with it. The panther may have escaped from the house where she was detained, or the boss would have freed the animal for fear of an imminent police check.

This morning in various municipalities in the province of Brindisi, the carabinieri arrested 20 people (including three women), held responsible for drug dealing, illegal possession of weapons, extortion, corruption, disclosure of secrets related to a criminal proceeding and possession of counterfeit banknotes. A mole was a carabiniere: suspended from service.

Bomb damages Puglia mayor's office
Official says cannot explain attack

(ANSA) - Lecce, February 12 - A homemade bomb on Wednesday damaged a Puglia mayor's accountancy office.
Professional accountant Graziano Vantaggiato, 53, the mayor of Soleto near Lecce on the Salento peninsula, was elected on a crossparty civic list.
The rudimentary device, police said, was set off in front of his accountancy office.
The bomb damaged the entrance to the office and woke the neighbours, who called the police.
Carabinieri have obtained CCTV footage of the incident.
Vantaggiato reportedly told police he could not explain the attack, judicial sources said.
The parliamentary anti-mafia commission said it would interview the mayor shortly.
The Puglia mafia, the United Holy Crown (Sacra Corona Unita, SCU), is Italy's fourth and smallest mafia.
The other three are 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, Cosa Nostra from Sicily, and the Camorra in Campania.
Prosecutors said last month the SCU is trying to emulate 'Ndrangheta.

Italian police on Thursday arrested 37 people accused of belonging to the Puglia mafia, the United Holy Crown (Sacra Corona Unita, SCU). The arrests, on various mafia charges including drugs trafficking and distribution, extortion and illegal weapons possession , were made in and around Brindisi and Mesagne, linked to the Coffa-Romano clan. The bosses Andrea Romano and Alessandro Coffa gave orders from prison to the affiliates, through their wives.

The SCU was once really big into cigarette smuggling I think. Were they ever as big as the camorra? They had some of the wealthiest smugglers like Zaza and Mazzarella. They were both worth hundreds of millions.

The Camorra and Cosa Nostra started with the business right after WWII, the SCU much later. It's a young organization founded in 1981 as the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese (current Società foggiana ) by Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, who wanted to expand his business in the Puglian region. In the 80s they did become major players.

Who are some of the most known and successful SCU members that have come along since their existence?

In 1987 the SCU was composed of the most representative families of the Brindisi area led by Salvatore Buccarella, Alberto Lorusso, Giovanni Donatiello, Giuseppe Gagliardi and Ciro Bruno (repentant died in prison in 2019) and some offshoots in the province of Taranto.

In the 2000s Francesco Campana took over the reins of the organization from the historical leaders.


Hierarchy
The first degree is the "picciotteria", the next the "camorrista", followed by "sgarrista", "santista", "evangelista", "trequartista", "medaglione" and "medallion with chain of the major society". They are degrees of clear 'Ndranghetista matrix.

On 16 June 2018 an operation was concluded against the Mercante-Diomede and Capriati clans of Bari in which the use of these rites is confirmed

Eight medallions with chain make up the "Most Secret Society" which commands a special body called the "Death Squad".

It must be specified that this pyramid of roles has above all a symbolic value: often the power held by the individual affiliate does not actually correspond to its position in the formal hierarchy.

The Ndrangheta started was once a lowly power compared to its allies throughout the rest of Italy at one time too. How possible is it that we see a surge of power from the SCU that they have been building up in the shadows?

They are high profile now, although without much media attention, but with a lot of violence from massacres to bombings.

Just finished this article about SCU, and the uptick in violence, specifically Foggia.

https://aboutthemafia.com/italian-city-transformed-into-a-bloody-mafia-battlefield

I believe that Sal Riina wife and kids were living in that area in 2014.

Major police operation against the United Holy Crown in Lecce and the province, so far 68 arrests for various reasons, for the crime of mafia-type criminal association, extortion, violation of the law of the arms, association aimed at drug trafficking and aggravated exercise and participation in gambling. The arrests affect two different clans, Pepe and Briganti.

The investigations of the Carabinieri on the ambush of last February 6 continue between the San Paolo district of Bari and the Cecilia area of ​​Modugno. Two subjects of the local underworld, outside the ACLI club, stalked the 43 year old Giuseppe Amoruso with the explosion of three pistol shots. The victim, immediately assisted by the health workers, did not report lethal injuries.

After viewing hours of footage recorded by private and public video surveillance cameras, located in the immediate vicinity and along the main roads leading to the exact point of the injury, and having listened to several witnesses, the investigations seem to have taken a turn.

The leaked rumors suggest that investigators are on the trail of two subjects close to the Telegrafo clan and that the episode is attributable to an unpaid debt in the purchase of narcotics. The investigations continue incessantly and the Carabinieri are doing everything possible to close the circle.

Rising violence in the city of Foggia points to the growing power of a new clan in the region, with an average of one murder a week, an extortion attempt every two days and a daily robbery between 2017 and 2018.

Puglia crimewave points to emergence of 'fifth' Italian mafia
Previously dismissed mob is characterised by ‘primitive’ forms of brutality, say investigators

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ints-to-emergence-of-fifth-italian-mafia

The Foggia mafia: the seventies and eighties

„
As Laronga explains, in Puglia the Camorristi soon imposed leadership, through requests for money in exchange for protection and affiliations of local gangsters. Cutolo's project aimed to cross regional borders, and the prison was the perfect place for recruiting affiliates. In Puglia, small formations were created that operated autonomously in the territories: according to the Report of the General Command of the Carabinieri, Foggia was under the control of Giosuè Rizzi and Giuseppe Iannelli , the latter among the major representatives of the 'Ndrangheta, who committed suicide in the Bari prison In Cerignola there was Cosimo Cappellari , in Taranto the Modeo brothers , while in Brindisi Giuseppe Rogoli, originally from Mesagne, connected to the Calabrian gang of the Bellocco, who a few years later founded the Sacra Corona Unita .

Affiliations

Cutolo 's project took on the official traits on January 5, 1979, at a summit held at the Hotel Florio , on State Road 16 between Foggia and San Severo , in which he himself participated, after escaping from the prison of Ascoli Piceno. The meeting sealed the affiliation of 40 Apulians. In 1981 the new Apulian Camorra was active throughout the territory, acting autonomously but under the control of the Camorra from Campania, to which it paid 40-50% of the illegal proceeds.

The decline of Cutolo

The experience did not last long, because both inside (with the requests for maintenance of the affiliates) and outside the prisons, the control of the bells had become overwhelming. In Campania, meanwhile, we witness the sunset of Cutolo, defeated by the rival clans who also joined the Corleonesi. The decline of 'O professor' paved the way for the autonomy of the Apulian underworld. The people of Brindisi and Lecce began, followed by Foggia and Taranto.


From the Sacra Corona United to autonomy

As mentioned, Rogoli founded a new criminal organization between 1981 and 1983, although only a judgment of the Court of Appeal in 1990 officially recognized the Sacra Corona Unita as a mafia association. Rogoli aimed at a federation in which the map of the Apulian underworld was divided into provinces. Foggia would have been a rib of the SCO, but Rogoli's desire for autonomy and attitudes wrecked the unity project. These are the years in which a creature begins to form itself. In the early 80s Foggia was divided between two factions that clashed fiercely: on one side Giuseppe Ciliberti , on the other Michele Carella. Between 83 and 84, however, one of the emerging exponents of the first clan, Gerardo Agnelli , passed to the rival one by marrying a niece of Carella, who in the meantime was arrested in the US for drugs. It was Agnelli who took command, while Ciliberti was killed on 3 October 1984. Prominent members of the Foggia underworld, such as Bonalumi, Ciccone, Delli Muti and Gaetano Moffa , soon joined the Agnelli-Carella clan . This led to 1986, a year of fire.

A 43-year-old man, Giuseppe Lafranceschina\ was killed with three pistol shots in the face in an ambush on the outskirts of Trinitapoli (Foggia). The married man was the cousin of Giuseppe Gallone, considered by the investigators to be at the top of the homonymous Carbone-Gallone clan.

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.

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

Mafia association, drug trafficking, weapons and extortion: 121 sentences for the Strisciuglio clan
Penalties ranging from 30 years to one year and six months' imprisonment for the defendants, including seven bosses of the criminal group

Editorial board
January 27, 2023 6:22 pm

There are 121 sentences inflicted by the investigating judge of the Court of Bari Antonella Cafagna against as many alleged leaders and affiliates of the Strisciuglio clan. The sentences imposed, as reported by Ansa, range from 30 years to one year and six months in prison. Another 14 people were acquitted.

The charges against the defendants were of mafia association, trafficking and possession of drugs and weapons, extortion of traders, injuries and a brawl that took place in January 2016 in the Bari prison, which involved 41 inmates armed with razor blades and box cutters and in which they reported some prison officers were also injured.

Prosecutors Iolanda Daniela Chimienti and Marco D'Agostino - reports the agency - at the end of the indictment, in the bunker room of the Court of Bitonto had asked for the sentence for the 135 defendants who had chosen the abbreviated procedure (another 15 were postponed to trial) asking for sentences of between 20 years and 22 months in prison.

A sentence of thirty years, the highest, was imposed on Giuseppe Misceo, known as 'Peppino the Ghost', while the alleged bosses Vito Valentino, Lorenzo Caldarola, Alessandro Ruta, Saverio Faccilongo, Vito Catacchio and Giacomo Campanale, among others, were sentenced to twenty years.

The trial follows the Vortice Maestrale investigation, conducted by the police and carabinieri, which had reconstructed, also through the statements of 21 collaborators of justice, the hierarchy and illegal activities of the clan since 2015,

The investigation by the police and carabinieri, called "Vortice maestrale", has reconstructed - also thanks to the declarations of 21 collaborators of justice - the hierarchy and illicit activities of the clan, since 2015, for the control of the territory in the Freedom districts of Bari, the historical stronghold of the mafia group, San Paolo, San Pio-Enziteto, Santo Spirito and San Girolamo and in the municipalities of Palo del Colle and Conversano. The defendants were sentenced to compensate the civil parties: the Libera association and the Municipality of Bari.

https://www.baritoday.it/cronaca/ma...iuglio-operazione-vortice-maestrale.html

Extortion, drugs and robberies: 13 arrests of the Squad in Brindisi

Thirteen people were arrested this morning at dawn by the Brindisi flying squad (six in prison and seven under house arrest) in execution of a precautionary measure issued by the Court of Review of Lecce in August and which became definitive a few days ago after the Court's ruling of Cassation.
The arrested are held responsible in various capacities and in competition with each other for crimes of mafia-type association, aggravated extortion, robbery, possession and carrying of a firearm and crimes relating to drugs.
The arrests are directly linked to those made by the flying squad on 14 July last year and have made it possible to uncover various alleged episodes of extortion committed against some commercial activities in the center and on the outskirts of Brindisi whose owners were forced to pay in in favor of the criminal consortium, even on a weekly basis, a sum of money called a "point".

So the Strisciuglio clan, one group, has 21 collaborators of justice lol, omertà is a thing of the past.

You're so right Hollander, I'm fucking appalled by how many rats there are over there. And they even have a positive name, pentiti or repentents. They're not even called rats!

Hollander, any idea why so many people in one clan would flip? I mean, are the benefits of snitching as good over there as they are in America, where you can become a YouTube sensation with your own podcast? I don't get it.

Also, have you read that article where Roberto Saviano said something like, the Mafia is allowing rats these days as just another cost of doing business. That may explain why some are allowed back into the fold, and some have even been found running their clans again.

the 41bis is the major reason to flip, it was applied to mafiosi by the government to make them to collaborate, it is worse than supermax prison in America

Still didn't answer my other questions. And some bosses have been able to get around 41 bis and still run their clans. I think there's a lot more to all of this than what we're being told.

yes, some bosses have been able to get around 41 bis and still run their clans but the vast majority remain isolated in fact dismantling the 41bis regime was among Riina's requests to the government in the early 1990s.
Recently a 100-day hunger strike by an anarchist leader (Alfredo Cospito) has reignited debate in Italy over the use of Western Europe’s harshest prison regime for dangerous offenders.


Alfredo Cospito: Hunger-striking Italian anarchist moved amid protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64467764

It's probably also that the mentality of today's criminals has changed, deeply rooted in the south there still will be Omertà like in the case of Messina Denaro. But it isn't as strong as it used to be.

Sicilians adopted the code long before the emergence of Cosa Nostra, and it may have been heavily influenced by centuries of state oppression and foreign domination. It has been observed at least as far back as the 16th century as a way of opposing Spanish rule.

Yes I get it, but in some cases the Mafia accepts pentiti as just another cost of doing business. For example, in the book Cosa Nostra by John Dickie he says that part of Bernardo Provenzano's strategy for rebuilding was even allowing disgruntled pentiti back into the fold.

there have been repentants manipulated by the criminal organizations themselves, they are the ones who return to their clan of origin

It's still very early morning even before dawn in Europe, so not much is known yet.

+++ Anti-drug operation: arrests underway in Brindisi and its province by the carabinieri +++
February 6, 2023

An operation by the carabinieri is underway in Brindisi and its province for the execution of a precautionary custody order, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Lecce at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, against several people under investigation for association aimed at trafficking of narcotic substances.

Mafia: Piantedosi, evident violence in Foggia

(ANSA) - FOGGIA, FEBRUARY 06 - "The Foggia mafia, a bit like it happened in traditional mafias, today is characterized by a certain evident violence that other mafias have overcome because they are more dedicated to other forms of pervasive contamination of citizens' lives.

Here there is one thing and another, a mafia in the legal circuits and also that, to claim the role it imagines it should have in the national criminal landscape, it often uses violent actions up to murder, with an increase in the last year .

The preventive action also focuses on the drying up of economic interests and the possibility of influencing the institutions that can be infiltrated". Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said today in Foggia where he signed a pact for urban security.

There have been various references to Abruzzo and the penetration of the Foggia mafia in this area. This is also the land of the Sinti clans Casamonica, De Rosa, Di Silvio, Ciarelli, Spinelli, Di Rocco etc..and Abruzzo houses the famous prison L'Aquila, where Messina Denaro is now incarcerated.

Mafia of the Gargano, the boss and his right-hand man on the loose. The level of the clash between the underworld and the state rises.

The boss Marco Raduano, a 39-year-old from Vieste known as "Pallone" or "Woolrich". escaped from the Badu 'e Carros prison in Nuoro in Sardinia. Yesterday, in fact, Raduano clamorously fled by lowering himself from the boundary wall with a sheet. An episode that rekindles the spotlight on the management of Italian penitentiaries, especially if one considers that the clan chief was in the High Security regime (416 bis). He was serving a 19-year sentence for drug trafficking.

His right-hand 30-year-old Gianluigi Troiano , known as "U' Minorenn", escaped from house arrest on 11 December 2021, fleeing from a house in Campomarino .

Foggia mafia, eight arrests: “Clans infiltrated the economic fabric of Pescara. Usury loans to entrepreneurs with rates up to 600%"

The Guardia di Finanza carried out the measures ordered by the investigating judge of L'Aquila against leading figures of the "Società Foggiana" gang, at the request of the Dda. The investigations revealed the business branches of the Moretti-Lanza-Pellegrino clan: usury, extortion, receiving stolen goods and fictitious registration of assets. Some of the victims have also had to hire their usurers or people related to them as employees

Long-ignored "Fourth Mafia" emerges as most violent in Italy: "You always feel the fear"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fourth-mafia-foggia-most-violent-italy/

Shooting in the street, two injured in Gioia del Colle
Second ambush in a few days in the town in the province of Bari

The toll of a shooting that took place yesterday evening in front of a social club in Gioia del Colle is two wounded. The two men aged 46 and 40, both, are hospitalized at the Miulli hospital in Acquaviva delle Fonti: one of the two, in serious condition, underwent surgery. There was another firefight in the same city on Wednesday, in which a 49-year-old was injured.
The carabinieri have launched investigations to reconstruct what happened. Investigators are assessing whether there are any links between the two episodes

A guy from Italy told me that the so-called "Sacra Corona Unita" is actually pretty much irrelevant these days. The two major organized crime groups in Apulia can actually be more described as Camorra outfits: the Società Foggiana in Foggia and the Camorra Barese in Bari. Both are a federation of clans akin to for instance the Casalesi. In both the Foggia and Bari regions they even speak Neapolitan.

Foggia in particular is - as far as Europe goes - known for being an absolute hellhole.

They do not speak napolitan in Bari. They speak Barese. It has some similarities to napolitan and partly descended from it but is quite different. Similar to the relationship between Sicilian and calabrese. Insist on calling a Barese guy napolitan, he will tell you off.

Oh for sure, there's definitely quite a bit of rivalry, but I always thought that the language they speak in Bari is called "Barese Neapolitan" which is a dialect variety.
The Foggiano dialect is definitely even more similar to Neapolitan.

Whenever Napoli and Foggia football teams play each other it's sorta seen as a semi-derby.