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Agrigento, maxi anti-mafia operation by the Carabinieri. 23 arrests carried out

At the same time, personal and house searches were carried out, delegated by the District Attorney's Office, against a further 20 individuals investigated in the same criminal proceedings.

Agrigento, maxi anti-mafia operation by the Carabinieri. 23 arrests carried out

At dawn the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Agrigento, in Agrigento, Favara (AG), Canicattì (AG), Porto Empedocle (AG), Santa Margherita Belice (AG), Mazara del Vallo (TP), Partanna (TP), Campobello di Mazara (TP), Castelvetrano (TP) and Gela (CL), with the support of colleagues from the Provincial Commands of Palermo, Trapani and Caltanissetta, of the Sicilian Helicopter Hunters Unit, of the Palermo and Nicolosi Dog Units and of the 9th Helicopter Unit of Palermo, they executed an arrest warrant for criminal suspects issued by the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office – District Anti-Mafia Directorate – arresting 23 suspects, all Italian citizens, seriously suspected, to varying degrees, of belonging to the mafia organization called “cosa nostra”, of being part of a criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and other matters.

At the same time, personal and house searches were carried out by the District Attorney's Office against 20 other individuals investigated in the same criminal proceedings.

The aforementioned provision originates from the investigative activities carried out by the Investigative Unit of the Carabinieri Operational Department of Agrigento and directed by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo, from December 2021 to date, having as their object the reconstruction of the organizational chart and criminal activities of the mafia families of Porto Empedocle and Agrigento/Villaseta, probably headed respectively by MESSINA Fabrizio, a 49-year-old criminal, and CAPRARO Pietro, a 39-year-old criminal, demonstrating that, despite having been significantly affected over the years by various operations, the Agrigento “cosa nostra” is still fully operational, equipped with significant financial resources and numerous weapons, moreover in a context characterized by an instability of the mafia balances laboriously achieved over time, to which are added the increasingly dangerous, persistent and documented connections between the associates confined within the prison circuit and the external criminal environments.

Agrigento, maxi operazione antimafia da parte dei Carabinieri. 23 fermi eseguiti

In fact, a systematic use of telephones by men of honour, or by subjects close to the gang, was found during their respective periods of detention, thus leaving their command capacities unaltered and allowing them to maintain contact with their accomplices at liberty and to give orders and directives.

The ability of the mafia association to control the criminal dynamics of the territory has emerged clearly, with clear evidence of the commission of numerous crimes having been collected (extortion, possession of weapons, arson and damage) all made using the conditions set out in art. 416 bis of the criminal code

During the investigation, it is believed that the associates, taking advantage of the intimidating power deriving from belonging to the mafia organisation called “cosa nostra”:

– forced the administrator of a company awarded the contract for waste collection and transportation in the Municipality of Agrigento to hire as workers at least five people related to them by family ties or in any case trusted by them;

– forced the legal representative of a fuel company to terminate the employment relationship with an employee and replace him with another person of their choice;

– they set fire to two trucks registered to a construction company in order to damage them;

– forced the administrator of the company awarded the contract for the redevelopment of Piazza della Concordia in the Villaseta district to hire a person of their choice as a worker; they also forced the company awarded the contract as a subcontractor for the same work to hire workers of their choice;

– they committed a robbery at the DB petrol station in Villaseta, during which they stole 400 euros from the employee using violence and threats;

– forced the owner of a bar in Agrigento and his employees to provide them with food and drinks without paying for them, thus obtaining for themselves an unjust profit resulting from the free consumption of food;

– forced, through repeated acts of violence and explicit threats, the owner of a commercial establishment in Agrigento to pay them the sum of 1.000 euros on a monthly basis, thus procuring for themselves and others the unjust profit resulting from the undue acquisition of the sum of money;

– they set fire to a van registered to a drinks shop in Porto Empedocle in order to damage it;

– on another occasion several gunshots were fired towards the shutter of the aforementioned shop;

– as a demonstration aimed at intimidation, several gunshots were fired towards the entrance door of the home of a man from Agrigento, who was guilty of having had an argument with the son of one of the associates.

In addition to the above, the top members of the mafia families of Porto Empedocle and Agrigento-Villaseta also appear to have directed and promoted two further distinct associations dedicated to drug trafficking which have acquired, in full synergy with each other, the monopoly of this profitable criminal sector in the province of Agrigento.

Both criminal associations have, moreover, demonstrated that they possess an uncommon supply capacity through the activation of contacts and commercial relationships not only with criminal groups from other Sicilian provinces but also with other national and foreign groups (Belgium, Germany and the United States).

There have been numerous transports of large quantities of narcotic substances and their subsequent transfer to third parties for the purpose of further retail resale. During the investigation, in fact, over 100 kg of hashish, over 6 kg of cocaine and, last November, also the sum of 120.000,00 euros in cash contained in five vacuum-packed packages hidden inside a car were seized.

The most recent investigative findings have recorded a sudden and alarming recrudescence of serious acts of intimidation carried out also through the use of weapons, probably due both to the imposition of respect for territorial "competence" and to attempts to oppose the hegemony of the mafia group currently at the top of the Agrigento-Villaseta family. Therefore, there was a concrete risk that a crescendo of intimidation actions could occur that could lead to the commission of even more serious crimes, or what the suspects themselves define as a real mafia "war".

During today's judicial police operation, the searches carried out on the subjects arrested and on the other suspects, allowed to find and seize various quantities of narcotic substance of cocaine type, hashish and cash, as well as to arrest in flagrante delicto a further subject found in possession of approximately 200 gr. of narcotic substance of cocaine type and 2.700 euros in cash.

Once the formal procedures were completed, all those arrested were transferred to various prisons in Sicily, at the disposal of the Judicial Authority.

 

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