Reggio Calabria, 'Ndrangheta and illicit waste trafficking: 29 measures from North and South

Reggio Calabria, from the early hours of this morning, the Carabinieri of the CC Forestry Group of Reggio Calabria, assisted by the Forestry Carabinieri belonging to various departments in Calabria, Sicily, Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, and by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria, with the support of the Carabinieri Helicopter Squadron "Cacciatori Calabria", of the 8th Carabinieri Helicopter Nucleus stationed in Vibo Valentia and of the First Intervention Unit (API) stationed in Reggio Calabria, are engaged in the execution of a precautionary custody order personnel dependent on 29 subjects, with a simultaneous preventive seizure decree for five companies operating in the waste sector and equivalent sums, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Reggio Calabria, investigated in various capacities for mafia-type association, environmental disaster, traffic illicit waste, fictitious registration of goods, extortion, receiving stolen goods, embezzlement, material forgery committed by a public official in public documents, violation of seals and aggravated damage.
IThe provision, adopted in the preliminary investigation phase and without prejudice to further decisions by the jurisdictional authority of merit, was carried out in the provinces of Reggio Calabria, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Ravenna, Brescia and Monza-Brianza.
The investigations conducted by the soldiers of the NIPAAF (Environmental, Agri-food and Forestry Police Investigative Unit) of Reggio Calabria, under the direction of the Public Prosecutor, Dr. Giovanni Bombardieri and coordinated by the Deputy Prosecutor Dr. Calogero Gaetano Paci and by the Deputy Prosecutors Dr. Gianluca Gelso (then transferred to another Office) and Dr. Paola D'ambrosio and Dr. Giorgio Panucci, were started in 2017 and originated from an inspection carried out at the company headquarters of the company "ECOSERVIZI SRL", a company that treats special metallic waste, located in the industrial area of ​​the Municipality of Gioia Tauro (RC) and managed by the DELFINO family, active in the sector for decades. The first investigative findings highlighted that the company, despite being subject to measures suspending the authorization for waste treatment and cancellation from the National Register of Environmental Managers, had become the fulcrum of an organized activity for the trafficking of special waste metallic nature, with an operational base in Gioia Tauro (RC) and with marked projections on the national and international territory. DELFINO Rocco, for years partner and Special Prosecutor of the company, with the material and moral contribution of other subjects, through tricks aimed at circumventing the anti-mafia legislation, promoted an association aimed at the illicit trafficking of waste through the management of companies fictitiously registered in the names of subjects third parties but attributable to the direct influence and domination of the DELFINO family, such as the MC METALLI SRL company and the CM SERVICEMETALLI SRL company. The corporate administrators of these companies revealed themselves as frontmen for the illicit trafficking of the DELFINOs, with a complete and unconditional communion of business and interests. The objective was to use the image and name of apparently "clean" companies, governed by a legal administrator without criminal or police prejudice, having all the documents in order to obtain the necessary authorizations for the management of a sector strategic, such as that of special waste, and in this way maintain contractual relationships with the major Italian steel companies, negotiate the import and export of waste to and from foreign countries, as well as aspire to be included in the white list in the established lists at the Prefecture.
The mafia criminal program of the DELFINO family also included the absolute dominion of the company DELFINO srl, a company under definitive confiscation since 2007 as it was the subject of a prevention procedure activated against the DELFINO family at the end of the nineties, on the assumed that the DOLFINO Rocco and his brothers gravitated in the family galaxy 'Ndrangheta of MOLÈ. The investigations made it possible to ascertain that the confiscated company DELFINO SRL, still active on the market, was nothing more than a shielding company for the illicit activities of the DELFINO brothers, with the active participation of the assistants and administrators designated by the National Agency for Seized Assets and confiscated from organized crime, as well as professionals (lawyers, consultants, accountants and environmental engineers) who provided their intellectual work for the same, with a fraudulent method and under the direction of DELFINO. In particular, DELFINO Rocco infiltrated DELFINO Srl with unscrupulous professionals loyal to him, exercised his influence by summoning his assistants before him and dictating to them the behavior to oppose the requests of the ANBSC. All aimed at maintaining complete mafia control of the confiscated company, in a climate of intimidation and abuse.
Another alarming criminal conduct ascertained during the investigations concerned the illicit disposal of large quantities of special waste, including dangerous ones, through burial activities in the ground, which became the subject of investigation and technical checks carried out by the Technical Consultants appointed by the Public Prosecutor's Office. Company trucks left the company headquarters with their bodies loaded with special waste, often attributable to "Car Fluff" (waste from the car demolition process) and arrived at agricultural land located a few meters away, burying copious quantities of waste, even at significant depths. The investigations carried out also revealed the burial of other materials, such as sludge presumably coming from the heavy mechanical and steel industries. These agricultural lands, following the burials and because of them, were seriously contaminated by highly harmful substances, some of them detected up to values ​​equal to 6000% (six thousand percent) of the foreseen limit, with the concrete and current danger that the substances pollutants can infiltrate even further into the subsoil, causing contamination of the underlying aquifer as well.
The investigations also made it possible to document specific extortion events to the detriment of companies involved in the contract for the demolition of the now obsolete quay cranes at the Port of Gioia Tauro. This affair involved some of today's arrested people on the front line, specifically DELFINO Rocco and CANGEMI Domenico, as exponents of the PI gangROMALLI of Gioia Tauro, and PALAIA Francesco B. as a member of the BELLOCCO gang of Rosarno.
The investigative activity also made it possible to reconstruct the relationships between DELFINO Rocco, MESSINEO Aurelio (very loyal to the boss PIROMALLI Giuseppe alias “Facciazza”) and the lawyer. Giancarlo PITTELLI, trusted lawyer of the PI familyROMALLI. From the investigations it emerged that the lawyer. Giancarlo PITTELLI conveyed information from inside the prison to the outside between the leaders of the PI gangROMALLI, detained in prison regime pursuant to art. 41 bis, i.e. PIROMALLI Giuseppe cl. 45 known as “Facciazza” and his son PIROMALLI Antonio cl. 72, and DELFINO Rocco, as a person of extreme trust for the Piromallis as a top member of the same gang. Furthermore, the lawyer Giancarlo PITTELLI took action in favor of DELFINO Rocco in the legal proceedings concerning the review of the preventive proceedings against the confiscated company Delfino srl, pending before the Court of Catanzaro, Preventive Measures Section, with the intent of "influencing" the decisions of the President of the Panel in order to obtain the revocation of the preventive seizure, as well as with a series of additional conducts that were outside the defense mandate.
In the picture represented above, MESSINEO Aurelio also emerged as a trait d'union between the family unit of the boss PIROMALLI Giuseppe and DELFINO Rocco, as the necessary conveyor of the needs expressed by the PI familyROMALLI. In fact, every contact was intermediated by MESSINEO Aurelio and the lawyer. Giancarlo PITTELLI, who guaranteed that the commitment made by DELFINO Rocco in favor of the gang was represented to those responsible, i.e. the members of the PI's family unitROMALLI Giuseppe cl. 45. It is from this perspective that DELFINO Rocco assumed the role of guardian of the interests of the PI gangROMALLI, careful to take care of his family needs and legal matters, ready to financially support, in the name and on behalf of the gang, even the defense costs.