Varese, big brawl between minors in Gallarate: 30 suspects, 2 arrests. There were also minors under 14 years old

Varese, the Varese State Police coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Busto Arsizio and by the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office of Milano, at the end of a laborious and intense investigative activity, identified and investigated a total of thirty subjects held responsible for the huge brawl that occurred in the city center of Gallarate on the afternoon of January 8th.

In particular, this morning, as a result of what was gathered during the investigations, 70 agents from the Varese Flying Squad and the Gallarate Police Station implemented the precautionary measures issued by the Busto Arsizio GIP at the request of the Busto Arsizio Prosecutor's Office in load of 2 Italian adults (2) and by the GIP for Minors of Milano at the request of the Prosecutor's Office for Minors of Milano dependent on 15 subjects(3).

Furthermore, the Police Commissioner of the province of Varese, through the local Anti-Crime Police Division, notified 26 of the thirty subjects under investigation(4) of the procedural documents aimed at issuing preventive measures known as "Daspo Willy", provided for by Legislative Decree 130/ 2020, which tightened the sanctioning regime for the crime of brawling, giving the Police Commissioner the power to extend the powers of application of the Urban Daspo towards all participants in the brawl, for the sole fact of participation.

The daspati will be banned from accessing premises and public establishments located in the area of ​​the center of the city of Gallarate, the scene of the serious brawl which occurred in the early afternoon hours of 8.01 and which generated strong social alarm. They will be denied access to restaurants, pastry shops, ice cream parlors, bars and similar establishments, dance halls, gaming halls and nightclubs precisely in order to prevent danger to public safety from their conduct.

Violation of the provision entails imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and a fine from 8.000 to 20.000 euros.

Among the young people under investigation, some of whom were even under the age of 14 and by law not attributable for the crimes committed, responsibility was ascertained for various and relevant criminal cases such as aggravated brawling, personal injury, aiding and abetting and carrying weapons. and objects capable of offending.

The investigation made it possible to understand that the fight on 8.01 was organized by two opposing factions, made up of people from Varese/Malnate against people from Cassano Magnago/Gallarate, in order to "settle the score" following a previous fight which took place only a few days earlier, on 4.01.2021, in Cassano Magnago (VA). This last event had pitted two subjects (of Central African and Lebanese origin) from Malnate (VA) and around twenty subjects (mainly of Albanian origin) from Cassano Magnago, who had faced each other for trivial reasons. As a result of this brawl, one of Malnate's boys had suffered minor injuries, caused by a blow inflicted with a wrench by one of the opposing contenders.

Starting from the same evening of 4.01, the participants in the brawl had begun to publish posts relating to the clash on their Instagram profiles, fomenting the conflict on social media and involving their respective friends, going so far as to organize an appointment for 8.01 in Gallarate to resolve the dispute. Through social media, a sort of "call to arms" took shape, complete with an invitation to participate in the rally on January 8th in Gallarate, an invitation unfortunately also welcomed by many young people who went to Gallarate that day without even knowing the real reason for the appointment.

The investigation activities made it possible to verify that on 8.01 the subjects coming from Varese/Malnate arrived in Gallarate equipped with numerous objects suitable for offending, including clubs, sticks, knives and chains, with which they hit some of the boys belonging to the opposing faction, including the minor who was then rescued by passers-by and, subsequently admitted to hospital, had suffered injuries judged to be healable in 7 days.

During the investigations, in addition to the seriousness of the behavior carried out by each participant in the brawl, a worrying inclination emerged among the suspects to reiterate, blatantly and dangerously, concrete and violent group actions carefully planned through the classic drumbeat conveyed on the most well-known social networks present in network, also aimed at organizing the "third round" in recent days in the Municipality of Malnate, which was not achieved only thanks to the collaboration of the institutions of that Municipality and the immediate activities carried out by the State Police.

The serious riots of 8 January in Gallarate, in addition to having an unfavorable impact on the perception of safety of the city community, took place mainly in the city centre, a place characterized by the massive presence of restaurants, pastry shops, ice cream parlors, bars and other notoriously busy commercial establishments. also by families with children.

Also for this reason, the synergistic response of the institutions was not long in coming and, promptly, despite the complexity of the recognition operations of the numerous subjects involved in the acts of violence, they managed to crystallize, for each of them, their personal criminal responsibilities within of a complete and well-defined evidentiary framework.