Agrigento: “Cosa nostra”, 48 precautionary measures orders executed
Agrigento Mafia Strike
Agrigento: “Cosa nostra”, 48 precautionary measures orders executed
The Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Agrigento, in Agrigento, Favara (AG), Canicattì (AG), Porto Empedocle (AG), and Gela (CL), with the support of their colleagues of the Provincial Command of Caltanissetta, have given execution of a Personal Precautionary Measures Order issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Court of Palermo at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office - District Anti-Mafia Directorate - against 51 investigated (partly already held in prison), all Italian citizens, seriously accused, 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 crimes.
With regard to the above-mentioned 51 suspects, which also include all 24 individuals affected last December by the arrest warrant issued by the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate, for 36 of them the precautionary measure of prison was ordered, while for the remaining 15 the precautionary measure of house arrest was ordered.
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, with probably at the head respectively 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 today, equipped with huge financial resources and numerous weapons, moreover in a context characterised 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.
In fact, it has been found that a systematic use of telephones by men of honor, or of subjects close to the association, during their respective periods of detention, thus leaving their command and control capabilities unchanged 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, having gathered clear evidence of the commission of numerous crimes (extortion, possession of weapons, arson and damage) all committed by taking advantage of the conditions set out in art. 416 bis of the criminal code
During the investigation, it is therefore believed that the associates, taking advantage of the intimidating power deriving from belonging to the mafia organisation called “cosa nostra”:
– they forced the administrator of a company awarded the contract for the waste collection and transport works in the Municipality of Agrigento, to hire at least five people related to them by family ties or in any case trusted by them as workers;
- they forced the legal representative of a fuel company to terminate the working relationship with an employee to replace him with another person of their choice;
- they set fire to two trucks registered to a construction company in order to damage them;
– they forced the administrator of the company awarded the contract for the redevelopment of Piazza della Concordia in the Villaseta district, to hire a person they like as a worker; they also forced the company that was awarded the subcontract for the same work to hire workers they liked;
– committed a robbery at the DB distributor in Villaseta, during which they took possession of the sum of 400 euros which they stole from the employee using violence and threats;
– forced the owner of a bar in Agrigento and his employees to serve them food and drinks without paying for them, thus procuring for himself the unjust profit resulting from the free consumption of foodstuffs;
– they 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 every month, thus procuring for himself and others the unjust profit resulting from the undue acquisition of the sum of money;
– they set fire, in order to damage it, to a van registered to a drinks shop in Porto Empedocle;
– in other circumstances they exploded several gunshots fired at the shutter of the aforementioned shop;
– they exploded, as a demonstrative action for the purpose of intimidation, several gunshots towards the front door of a man's home in Agrigento, guilty of having had an argument with the son of one of the associates.
In addition to what is described above, the top members of the mafia families of Porto Empedocle and Agrigento-Villaseta are also found to be having directed and promoted two further distinct associations dedicated to drug trafficking who have acquired, in full synergy with each other, the monopoly of this profitable criminal sector in the province of Agrigento.
Both criminal gangs have, moreover, demonstrated that they possess an uncommon capacity for supply through the activation of contacts and commercial relationships not only with criminal groups from other Sicilian provinces but also with other groups both national and foreign (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. In the course of the investigation, in fact, they were seized 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.
The most recent investigative findings have recorded a sudden and alarming resurgence 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, the Agrigento-Villaseta family.
Therefore, there was a concrete risk that a crescendo of intimidating actions could occur which could lead to the commission of even more serious crimes., or what the suspects themselves define as a real mafia "war", which was put to a halt last December with the execution of an arrest warrant for criminal suspects issued by the Palermo District Anti-Mafia Directorate, by virtue of which 24 people were held in prison and numerous searches were carried out both immediately afterwards and in the following days, which allowed find and seize, among other things, an arsenal of numerous weapons and ammunition, including war weapons, including a hand grenade and a 9mm machine gun, as well as the sum of 80.000 euros in cash.
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