Verona: fight against organized crime, unanimous request signed by all mayors to bring DIA and DDA to the territory

Addressed to the Government, at the initiative of the Municipality of Verona through the mayor and the councilor for security and legality together with Avviso pubblico, the letter signed by the 98 mayors of Verona which requests the secondment to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Venice court and the establishment of an operational section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate.

The President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, who spoke at the presentation in the Tapestry Room, confirmed his commitment to continuing the process.

The right to legality has no political color. Legality is not right or left.

Legality does not have, and must not have, political color. It is a fundamental right of citizens, and whoever is in government of a community knows that ensuring its respect is his task, his duty.

Even more so in an area like Verona and its province, which is rich and attracts business, infrastructure projects, major events, and therefore also organised crime.

The mafia can only be fought together, but the right tools are needed, starting with the establishment of an operational section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate and the secondment to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Venice court.

A need that has been felt for years now, confirmed by the reports and data of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, and for which the Administration has moved immediately by involving all the Municipalities of the Province for a choral and shared action.

The result is the letter addressed to the ministers Piantedosi and Nordio and to the Veronese parliamentarians to finalize the request, a historic result for the unity and speed of the response. An involvement that the Administration has been working on for some time in collaboration with Notice public, of which it is a member and with which it is committed to carrying forward the culture of legality, respect for the rules and the fight against every type of mafia.

The biannual reports of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate have long highlighted how the Verona area is a territory in which, together with the Calabrian mafia, other mafia-type organizations, both Italian and foreign, operate, which are mainly active in the laundering of money of illicit origin in the local economy, in the dealing of significant quantities of narcotics and in the exploitation of people for sexual and work purposes.

From 2022 to January 2024, the Prefecture of Verona issued 22 anti-mafia interdictions - of which 4 collaborative preventions - towards companies operating in various production sectors in the Verona area and the Financial Information Unit of the Bank of Italy, in its latest report referring to 2023, reported 1.972 suspicious financial transactions. Since it places the province of Verona in second place in the whole of Veneto.

“This need arises from factual data which unfortunately have been highlighted by recent investigative operations and which have confirmed the presence of organized crime in our territory – said the mayor of Verona-. And it is easy to imagine that the interest of organized crime will increase in the coming months with the start of major infrastructure projects and major international events to which investments are linked that attract unsavory and often unrecognizable appetites. Thanks to the support of Avviso Pubblico in recent months we have tried to raise the bar of attention and sensitivity by creating institutional antibodies that must all be on the same side, and on this we are demonstrating that we have no doubts. I truly hope that this initiative can lead, thanks also to our territorial presence in Roman institutions and at government level, to obtaining this recognition. A result that would allow us to concretely combat those who want to do business illicitly by exploiting the fertile ground that Verona offers in terms of presences, works and major projects.

The need for the presence of a specific and strengthened investigative control in our province has been felt for some time, as also attested by the motion voted at the City Council of the Municipality of Verona on 30 August 2017 by all political forces, including the current President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, and taken up by the current City Council of Verona on 26 October 2022.
I thank everyone for their presence, individually we will not have the strength we have together." concluded the mayor, who recalled how the initiative finds the unanimity of the institutions and the police forces who constantly discuss the issues of safety and legality in the provincial Committee for safety and public order.

“The recent Taurus and Isola Scaligera investigations have, as is known, attested to the rooting (not infiltration) of organized crime in the Verona area - states the councilor for Security, Transparency and Legality -. The phenomenon, in addition to being widespread, appears to be of high quality, such as to be able to significantly permeate some sectors of the economy and to easily approach both politics and important decision-making centers of the territory. As well underlined on several occasions also by the Prosecutor, it is essential that the nerve center of the investigations is nourished and starts from Verona, and not from Venice, whose geographical distance does not allow for an effective grasp of the signals and dynamics of our territories, nor does it allow for the right reaction times to such signals. The need is strongly felt by the citizens of the entire territory of the province of Verona, as attested by the choral response given by their mayoral representatives who have, all without exception and regardless of political affiliation, accepted the invitation of Avviso Pubblico and the Capital Municipality to formalize to the Ministers of Justice and the Interior the request to establish in Verona a headquarters of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate and a section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate. We are fortunate to live in a context of great challenges and great opportunities, which already now and even more so in the coming months and years will experience a season of important public investments and important works: from this comes the great responsibility of national institutions to give the economy and citizens the appropriate tools to preserve it from the risks of a mafia presence that flows of money and a thriving economic fabric inevitably entail".

Il Provincial coordinator of Avviso Pubblico in Verona: "It is a unique and extraordinary fact that all the Mayors of the province of Verona, with the President of the Province, have decided to accept the proposal to sign the letter that we will send to the parliamentarians, the regional councilors of Verona, the Minister of the Interior and Justice to ask that a section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate and the District Anti-Mafia Directorate be established in Verona. A request that in recent times has also been authoritatively expressed by the Public Prosecutor, Dr. Raffaele Tito. In the last provincial coordination of Avviso Pubblico – which currently has 38 member municipalities in the Verona area, plus the Province and two publicly held companies – we unanimously decided to support the motion voted on by the City Council of the Municipality of Verona on 30 August 2017 by all political forces, including the current President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and taken up by the current City Council of Verona on 26 October 2022. The Mayors of Verona are sending an important message to the territory: against organized crime, we need an action of organized legality, which involves not only the judiciary and the police forces – to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks for the work they do in the Verona area – but also politics, the world of economics and civil society”.

“As in the fight against Covid, all mayors unite against another invisible enemy, organized crime – said the president of the Province –.Today a new path begins which calls on the representatives of the Government and the parliamentarians of Verona”.

The President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies intervened by recalling the commitment required of the Government to establish a detached section of the Court of Appeal of Venice in Verona.

Commitment contained in a resolution approved last May by the Commission he chairs which deals with justice.

“The presence on the territory of an operational section of the DIA and the secondment to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Venice court would strengthen the work and actions against crime and would enhance the measures already in place– said the President of the Commission –. But first we need to bring the Court of Appeal to Verona, a proposal already filed and included in the geography of the Justice reform”.