Operation "Res Tauro": A sting against the Piromalli clan, with 26 arrests and seizures totaling over €7 million.
The Carabinieri ROS (Special Operations Unit) has reconstructed the structure of the historic 'Ndrangheta clan. Among those under investigation are the Piromalli brothers. Assets, land, and businesses in several Italian provinces have been seized.
Operation "Res Tauro": a hit on the Piromalli clan, 26 arrests and seizures worth over €7 million.
From the early hours of September 23, the Special Operations Group, with the support in the executive phase of the territorially competent Provincial Carabinieri Commands, in Benevento, Lecce, Milano, Nuoro, Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Ventimiglia is executing a precautionary prison measure issued by the Court of Reggio Calabria, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office - District Anti-Mafia Directorate, against 26 individuals are under investigation for various charges of mafia-type association, extortion, money laundering, self-laundering, illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, obstruction of auctions, aiding and abetting, fraudulent transfer of assets, aggravated by mafia methods, as well as weapons-related crimes.
The investigation – launched in 2020 – concerns the reconstruction of the current structure of the Piromalli clan, a particularly important branch of the Ndrangheta in the overall criminal landscape of the entire organisation of which, according to the reconstruction currently considered well-founded by the Judge for preliminary investigations, the following have resulted leading figures are the Piromalli brothers Giuseppe, born in 1945 “facciazza”, Gioacchino, born in 1934, and Antonio, born in 1939, who are accused of the strategic-operational direction of the gang and its related criminal activities.
In this regard, a prominent position has been given to Piromalli Giuseppe who, the day after his release from prison – occurred on May 10, 2021, after 22 consecutive years of detention under the regime referred to in Article 41 bis of the Penitentiary System – he would have taken over the reins of the gang redefining the roles and tasks of the members, reaffirming its power over the territory through constant extortionate pressure against entrepreneurs and commercial operators as well as through the alteration of judicial auctions by tampering with the relevant sales procedures, in order to acquire assets of interest to the gang itself, to regain possession of assets already confiscated, or to receive money and/or other benefits from third parties intending to win the public tender.
The assets thus acquired by the gang, through complex transactions, would have been fictitiously registered in the names of compliant third parties with the aim of evading the provisions regarding asset prevention measures.
According to what is believed in the precautionary measure, the huge illicit profits, received almost exclusively in cash, would have been reinvested in business activities attributable to the gang, through a system of recycling and self-laundering mainly connected to the services provided to local agricultural companies.
At the same time as personal precautionary measures the ROS has proceeded with the execution of an emergency precautionary seizure, issued by the Public Prosecutor's Office – District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Reggio Calabria, of 6 properties, 16 plots of land, 3 individual businesses and 2 agricultural enterprises with an estimated market value of 3 million euros, believed to be attributable, in various capacities, to individuals belonging to the gang.
At the same time, two separate preventive measures were carried out against Giuseppe Piromalli and his right-hand man Antonio Zito (and their respective families) – concerning movable and immovable assets, bank accounts for a total amount of over 4 million euros., requests based on the evidence gathered during the investigations that have supported the qualified and ongoing social danger of the suspects as well as acquiring, through targeted financial investigations, significant evidence regarding the unitary management of the Piromalli clan, which operates as a single economic entity, whose illicit profits are shared and distributed.
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