Naples, 31 arrests for mafia-type association: weapons and narcotics found in prison. 

By delegation of the Public Prosecutor of Naples, we inform you that yesterday morning, in Naples, the State Police and the Penitentiary Police executed 2 precautionary custody orders in prison against a total of 31 recipients.

The first order, issued by the GIP of the Court of Naples at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, was carried out by personnel of the Central Investigation Unit of the Penitentiary Police, of the Central Operational Service of the State Police, of the Mobile Squads of Frosinone and Naples, as well as SISCO of Naples, against 20 recipients, seriously suspected of mafia-type association, drug trafficking, possession of common firearms and undue access to devices suitable for communication by detained individuals.

The business was launched in April 2021 following the discovery of some cell phones at the Secondigliano prison, an investigation for which the Central Investigative Unit of the Penitentiary Police was delegated.

The investigative activity then converged with an investigation carried out in parallel by the Frosinone Flying Squad, also then delegated by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate, initially originating from a shooting that occurred on 19.9.2021 inside the Frosinone Prison.

From here, activities were started aimed at identifying the person responsible for having introduced a firearm into the prison using a drone.

The continuation of the investigations made it possible to bring to light a criminal structure capable of guaranteeing the supply of telephones, both smartphones and small cell phones, as well as significant quantities of narcotics in multiple penitentiary facilities, including those hosting prisoners classified as maximum security, located throughout Italy.

The investigations carried out documented how the suspect SV and his collaborators were hired by Camorra-type organizations (among others, subjects linked to the Esposito – Nappi di Bagnoli family were identified who, moreover, were the first to have benefited from this stratagem), who guaranteed their inmates a constant supply of communications equipment and narcotics, thus ensuring the monopoly of distribution in the prison facilities involved (Frosinone, Naples – Secondigliano, Cosenza, Syracuse, Lanciano, Augusta, Catania, Terni, Rovigo, Caltanissetta, Rome-Rebibbia, Avellino, Trapani, Benevento, Melfi, Asti, Saluzzo, Viterbo and Sulmona).

The investigations then made it possible to identify CA class 72 as the subject capable of making construction modifications to drones that would also allow them to fly over military areas while supporting greater weight in flight. The technical analyzes on the seized drones, delegated to the Technical Investigation Department of the Special Operational Group of the Carabinieri, made it possible to confirm these manipulations carried out on the remotely piloted devices.

simultaneously, again by delegation of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, staff of the Naples Flying Squad executed a precautionary custody order in prison against 11 recipients, considered seriously suspected, in various capacities, of mafia-type association, extortion, trafficking of drugs, possession of weapons and use of communications devices in prison.

The investigations were started on 20 March 2023, when personnel from the Naples Flying Squad intervened in via Caracciolo near the chalet from Sasa for the murder of MAIMONE Francesco Pio.

The following day VALDA Francesco Pio was arrested as he was held responsible for the criminal event. The investigations had made it possible to ascertain that that evening in the chalet area of ​​Via Caracciolo two groups of young people had clashed following an argument for trivial reasons and that VALDA Francesco Pio had fired several shots, despite the presence of many people who crowded the seafront area, killing MAIMONE who was uninvolved in the facts.

On 12 October 2023, an order was then carried out which ordered the precautionary custody in prison for 4 people and the house arrest for 3, as they were considered seriously suspected of possession of firearms and aiding and abetting, also aggravated by mafia methods.

After the murder was committed, the suspects had in various capacities helped the perpetrator to elude the investigations and had taken the firearm used and hidden it.

The investigations then continued towards the criminal organization to which he belongs: Francesco Pio VALDA is in fact the son of Ciro of the Cuccaro di Barra clan, victim of a Camorra ambush in 2013 following an internal feud within the clan.

Following this event, in the following years, the Valda became linked to the Aprea clan, in historical contrast with the Cuccaro clan.

The investigations made it possible to record a climate of tension fueled by a series of violent events, some attributable to the ongoing conflict between Aprea and Cuccaro, others instead due to impromptu events in which the Valda group always found itself involved.

During the investigations, firearms were seized and armed exchanges between the two groups were documented. Various acts of intimidation, such as explosions of homemade bombs, were also recorded at commercial establishments.

Finally, various conversations from the prison were recorded, given that the detained affiliates were able to communicate with the free ones, giving instructions of various kinds through smartphones unlawfully detained in the prison facility.

On February 29, the Naples Flying Squad executed a custodial order against VG, which replaced the house arrest measure previously provided for the aforementioned aiding and abetting. On February 27, the suspect had in fact violated the requirement of the ban on communications with people other than those cohabiting by publishing a video on the social network TikTok in which she praised the mafia. The post also included the words “TRIBUNALE DI NAPOLI” and the time 7:30, a clear reference to the fact that the trial for the murder of the young MAIMONE Francesco Pio had begun the day before.

The measures carried out are precautionary measures, ordered during preliminary investigations, against which appeals are permitted and the recipients of the same are people subjected to investigations and, as such, presumed innocent until a final sentence is reached.