Foggia, “Mari e Monti” operation: mafia association hit, leading to the arrest of 39 people 

The criminal proceedings, from which the operation “Seas and mountains”, represents the most complex, structured and, at the same time, innovative investigation carried out in the Bari district on mafia-type organised crime operating in the province of Foggia.

The structural complexity is directly linked to the ambitious objective of the investigative project: verify the ongoing criminal activity of the Gargano mafia association called clan the Bergolis, from the period following its definitive judicial recognition, dating back to 2009, up to the present day, thus filling a reconstructive gap that has lasted for a period of 15 years.

The investigative and judicial results of a variety of criminal proceedings have been acquired and systematized, with the use of a copious and varied series of elements, enriched, in recent times, by the valuable contributions of important collaborators of justice.
There are many new aspects, both in terms of the composition of the working group responsible for the acquisition, analysis and development of the investigative findings and in relation to the contrast methodology adopted, characterised by the concomitant use of multiple and diversified instruments of the activity of contrasting mafia organisations, both in a repressive and preventive manner.

It is the first time, in fact, that an anti-mafia investigation by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Bari has seen the concomitant involvement of the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Directorate, the Central and Inter-provincial Services of the Carabinieri, Police and Guardia di Finanza and their other peripheral bodies..

Another significant element of novelty is given by the fact that the counteraction was characterized by the concomitant execution of personal and real precautionary measures ordered by the GIP of the Court of Bari, of preventive asset seizures, adopted on an urgent basis by the Preventive Measures section of the Court of Bari (on a proposal formulated jointly by the National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor and the Public Prosecutor of Bari) and of ministerial provisions implementing the special detention regime referred to in art. 41 bis for some suspects.

The evolutionary path of the clan the Bergolis It is characterized by the coexistence of elements linked to tradition with profiles of significant modernity, with the consequent ability to associate its original configuration in accordance with the schemes of the so-called "military mafia" with the more advanced and sophisticated profile of "business mafia".
In perfect continuity with its genesis, the Gargano mafia association is characterised by its strong family connotation and by a territorial rooting that is ever more pervasive, elements that have, over time, ensured silence, solidity of the associative bond and generalised capacity for environmental conditioning, this last aspect being particularly evident, sometimes in a striking form, in the aiding of fugitives and in the exercise of extortion practices, imposed as recognition of a tax of sovereignty and almost always characterised by a tacit threat, realised through conclusive behaviour, with the absence of denunciation by the blackmailed entrepreneurs.

In terms of organizational structures, the mafia organization is characterized by the coexistence of a plurality of cells, located in various locations on the promontory, with operational autonomy but hierarchically traceable, on the endo-associative level, to a single vertical line of command.
The central element that characterizes the methodological profiles and operational strategies of the Gargano mafia group is represented by the fierce armed opposition with the clan Romito-Lombardi-Ricucci, which has generated, over the course of more than a decade, an unstoppable trail of blood, culminating in the quadruple homicide of Apricena on 9.8.2017 (improperly known as the “massacre of S. Marco in Lamis”), in which two farmers with no connection to the mafia were also barbarically killed.

The ability to recruit minors is a peculiar characteristic of the clan the Bergolis, with the activation of a tutoring path for young people, whose reliability is initially tested by their use in the commission of predatory crimes.
Significantly alarming was the ability of the organization to grow and develop even while many of its most authoritative members were in prison.
As proof of the absolute unsuitability of the "high security" regime, to which the top exponents of the clan the Bergolis have been subjected up to now, to prevent the maintenance of connections with the mafia association to which they belong and with the wider circuits of mafia organisations operating in the province of Foggia, the investigation highlighted the ability to develop, through notes conveyed by family members, the use of epistolary correspondence and the abusive use of cellular devices, a stable channel of endo-associative connection even in prison, aimed at managing the common fund, economic assistance to detained members, the implementation of the association's purposes and the promotion and development of drug trafficking.

The current, ever more alarming, marked operational vitality of the clan the Bergolis has been dramatically highlighted by the unstoppable expansion path taken by the mafia association in recent years, clearly oriented towards projecting its hegemony, originally rooted in the hinterland, onto the Gargano coasts, thus making a decisive leap in quality in the modernization process.

The control of Vieste, achieved as a result of a further bloody extension of the armed conflict with the opposing clan in that area Romito-Lombardi-Ricucci, allowed the clan the Bergolis to occupy a significant space in the international drug trafficking network, positioning itself as a reliable interlocutor of the Albanian criminal cartels and important clans of the Reggio Calabria 'ndrangheta.
The huge amounts of capital deriving from international drug trafficking have favoured the infiltration process in the economic and entrepreneurial fabric, also highlighted by the numerous anti-mafia bans issued by the Prefect of Foggia, with reference to companies considered, in some way, attributable or in any case connected to the clan. the Bergolis.
The clan's penetrating mafia conditioning capacity the Bergolis It has also had repercussions on the local political-administrative apparatus, generating, in the last decade, the dissolution of the municipalities of Monte S. Angelo, Mattinata and Manfredonia due to mafia-related reasons.

The precautionary order ordered the detention in prison of 37 suspects (including a woman) and house arrest for 2 others (including a woman). Some of these individuals are already detained.

The defendants are charged with 48 counts, specifically:
1 mafia association (charged to 25 suspects);
2 associations aimed at drug trafficking (one against 11 suspects, the other against 10 suspects);
21 drug-related crimes;
11 extortion crimes;
5 crimes relating to weapons;
9 various crimes (robbery, aggravated theft, aiding and abetting, fraudulent transfer of valuables, receiving stolen goods).
Approximately 10 million euros is the total value subjected to asset seizure.

The “Mari e Monti” proceedings should have included a further 7 subjective positions of members of the gang, all of whom died violently due to injuries from gunshots.

The GIP also deemed it appropriate to reject the measure against a further 7 defendants, 2 of whom were found to be ineffective due to lack of seriousness of the evidence and 5 due to lack of current precautionary needs. (although he recognizes the seriousness of the circumstantial evidence).

The numbers of the survey:
33 interrogations conducted by 18 different collaborators of justice, for a total of 3580 pages;
75 interceptions of different telephone users;
53 environments subject to interceptions among those present;
16 telephone devices subject to telematic interception with a computer interceptor;
22 sites under video surveillance;
16 intercepts of prison conversations (with 43 conversations used)
160 judicial decisions acquired and entered into the records;
26 related criminal proceedings analyzed;
3 municipal dissolution measures (Monte S. Angelo, Mattinata and Manfredonia)
14 anti-mafia bans examined;
a high number of arrest reports and police notes
seizures, over time, of 11 rifles, 9 pistols, 3 explosive devices, 10 kg of explosive material, 636 rounds of ammunition.
seizures, over time, of 1674 kg of marijuana; 1 kg of cocaine; 3 kg of heroin; 1 kg of hashish.

The state of permanent belligerence between the two mafia organizations "THE BERGOLIS" is "ROMITO-RICUCCI-LOMBARDI”, since 2009 has caused 21 murders and 18 attempted murders, so there is an imminent risk of further bloodshed being planned and committed.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the judge in the precautionary measure defines the investigated association scenario as "the most alarming organized crime in the Apulian territory".

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