Ndrangheta in Legnano, five more arrests

Five more arrests and numerous searches ordered by the Public Prosecutor's Office Milano to the GICO, Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Milano with the NIPAAF Forestry Carabinieri of Milano as part of the “Special guest” operation, following the one called Feudo della Dda against the local Ndrangheta of Lonate Pozzolo and Legnano.

The five are accused of the crimes of extortion and issuing invoices for non-existent operations with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method, including the head of the "Legnano-Lonate Pozzolo club" (currently accused in the "KRIMISA" trial) and a municipal councilor of Busto Arsizio, connected with exponents of the aforementioned club. The system was always the same: the bribes to obtain permits to carry out activities in the waste sector were based on financial funds created ad hoc with the issuing of invoices for non-existent operations and fictitious consultancy, by the sole proprietorship of a compliant member of the Busto Arsizio City Council.

It has been demonstrated how these provisions, amounting to over 100 thousand euros per year, were used to cover the payment of travel and accommodation expenses in Northern Italy by the closest family members of a subject at the time detained and subjected to the regime referred to in art. 41 bis. Ord. Pen.: hence the name of the operation “SPECIAL GUEST”.

The investigation is the follow-up to the "FEUDO" operation coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Milano which led, in October 2019, to the arrest of 11 individuals for illicit waste trafficking and the preventive seizure of buildings, land and financial resources for a total amount of over 1.500.000,00 euros. The investigation started after the execution of the aforementioned ordinance made it possible to find how the company SMR ECOLOGIA srl, operating first in the sector of transport and then of waste treatment, managing the waste treatment plant located in La Guzza (CO), has suffered, for a long period, the infiltration by subjects linked to the Legnano-Lonate Pozzolo local.

Thanks to the entrepreneur's choice, at the time reached by the precautionary measure, to explain the reasons underlying the illicit activity, it was possible to reconstruct the extortion context in which he, from 2014 to 2018, was forced to provide various types of benefits and, more precisely, both sums of money and hiring personnel. It emerged, thanks to timely economic-financial investigations carried out by the Fiamme Gialle, that the majority of money donations took place through the creation of ad hoc funds created, through the issuing of invoices for non-existent operations, for fictitious consultancy, from the individual firm of a compliant member of the City Council of Busto Arsizio. It has been demonstrated how these provisions, amounting to over Euro 100.000,00, for a single year, were used to cover the payment of travel and accommodation expenses in Northern Italy by the closest family members of a subject to at the time detained and subjected to the regime referred to in art. 41 bis. Ord. Pen.: hence the name of the operation “SPECIAL GUEST”. It also emerged that the extortion activity led to the forced hiring by the company of the son-in-law of the head of the aforementioned establishment. The sector in which SMR ECOLOGIA srl operated is alarming: as is known, waste is one of the current privileged areas for the operations of the 'ndragheta and this in relation to its extreme profitability.