Reggio Calabria, “Chirone” operation: 14 people arrested, assets seized from the Mafia for 8 million

Reggio Calabria, On 23 March 2021, the ROS - with the support in the executive phase of the Provincial Carabinieri Commands of Reggo Calabria, Catanzaro and Bologna - executed an application order of precautionary measures issued by the Court of Reggio Calabria, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office – District Anti-Mafia Directorate, directed by Dr. Giovanni BOMBARDIERI.
The measures reached 14 subjects held responsible, in various capacities, for mafia-type association, external collaboration in mafia-type association, criminal association aimed at corruption, corruption, fraudulent transfer of values, trafficking in illicit influence in competition, all aggravated by the mafia method.
The investigations - concluded in 2018, in the era before the pandemic - focused on the ASP of Reggio Calabria whose competence extends over the entire administrative province divided into the health districts of Reggio Calabria, Tirrenico and Ionico and whose functioning was altered from mafia influences.
The investigations made it possible to document the organizational structures of the “PIROMALLI” (branch reporting to PIROMALLI Giuseppe, cl. 45) in which the doctors TRIPODI Giuseppantanio and Francesco Michele, brothers who recently passed away (in 2018), as well as the son of the latter, Fabiano, also a doctor, have assumed a position of particular importance. The first two, over time, have held various positions in the Health Authorities of Reggio Calabria, Gioia Tauro, Palmi (RC) and Tropea (VV), while TRIPODI Fabiano has been a reference figure for various corporate structures operating in the health sector.
The interested parties, strengthened by the positions held over time in the regional healthcare sector and making use of the intimidating capacity deriving from belonging to the "PIROMALLI”, have compromised the management system of the Health Districts of the ASP of Reggio Calabria, acquiring a dominant position in this area. In this regard, it emerged that, among other things, the procedures for appointing the Director of the Tyrrhenian District of the ASP of Reggio Calabria were altered and how, through some companies, the economic chain of distribution of medical products to public hospital facilities of the ASP of Reggio Calabria was monopolized.
In some cases, in order to facilitate the companies referable to the "PIROMALLI”, the use of direct award procedures for orders was found - in particular for the hospitals of Locri, Gioia Tauro, Polistena and Melito Porto Salvo - favored by the mediation of medical personnel rewarded with various benefits and undue commissions (variable between 2,5 and 5% of the nominal value of the orders).
From an associative point of view, criminal and entrepreneurial synergies emerged in the healthcare sector with the "MOLÈ" gang whose exponents were included, together with those of the "PIROMALLI”, in the same corporate structures.
In the context of the operation, a preventive seizure decree of movable and immovable assets and banking relationships was executed, issued by the Court of Reggio Calabria, against some companies for a total seizure amount of approximately 8 million euros.