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.