Potenza, a 180 million criminal system dismantled

A criminal organization dedicated to money laundering has been dismantled of the proceeds of the Foggia crime, also resulting from robberies of armored vehicles, with the connivance of companies operating in Basilicata and Lombardy; 9 arrested. The intervention device implemented by the State Police and the Guardia di Finanza was extensive, involving the use of over two hundred men and women to execute an order issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge at the Court of Potenza, at the request of this District Attorney's Office, with which 9 personal precautionary measures were ordered (7 in prison and 2 under house arrest), the seizure of the business assets of 11 companies worth 170 million euros as well as the preventive seizure, in direct or equivalent form, of goods with a value of approximately €10.000.000.

At the end of a long and complex activity, which saw the perfect investigative synergy of two Police Forces, through their territorial components (Economic-Financial Police Unit GdiF, SISCO of Potenza and Mobile Squad of the Police Headquarters of Potenza) and specialist components (Central Service for the Investigation of Organised Crime GdiF and Central Operational Service of the State Police) reconstructed the plots of a criminal association, characterised by a national transversality and founded on an extremely stratified consortium, which revolved around the figure of an entrepreneur lavellese and to individuals close to organised crime circles in Foggia, operating mainly between the Vulture-Melfese area and Cerignola (FG), aimed at laundering the proceeds of criminal activities carried out by the Cerignola component (mainly robberies of cash-in-transit vans), as well as the fraudulent transfer of assets and tax evasion.

The subject in question is one of the most important entrepreneurs in the Basilicata Region, active in various sectors of commerce, having ownership in several companies operating in multiple economic segments, but in particular he is known for being the owner of SG SpA and Glam'our Italia Srl, a leading company in Lucania in the trade and e-commerce of electronic, electrotechnical goods and telephone products. Since 2015, then, he has made a significant investment for the construction, in the Lavello area, of a luxury tourist-hotel complex that goes under the name of Hotel San Barbato Resort SPA & Golf.

The investigations began with a search carried out in 2017 against another building contractor operating in Lavello (PZ), during which, among other things, accounting documentation was found relating to work carried out for the construction of the Hotel San Barbato Resort SPA, which was under construction at the time and which unequivocally attested to a consolidated relationship, which went well beyond the mere commercial nature, with the entrepreneur from Lavello, owner of the aforementioned hotel structure and whose economic activities were functionally connected and attributable to a group of delinquents from Cerignola specialized in robberies of armored vans carried out throughout the national territory.

The investigative developments that resulted from this were based on several cornerstones. The first concerned charges relating to the crime of association and a series of crimes that reflect the relationships between the aforementioned entrepreneur and organised crime, in connection with extortion, money laundering, self-laundering, fraudulent transfer of assets and tax crimes. In essence, it was recorded, camouflaged among the regular commercial operations, in the coffers of the companies headed by the aforementioned, including SG SpA and Glam'Our Italia Srl, both with headquarters in Milano and Logistic Group Srl with headquarters in Lavello, a significant flow of money, quantified at at least 10 million euros, coming from criminal activities (robberies, assaults on armored vans, extortion, receiving stolen goods, thefts, and more) carried out by two other individuals, well-known members of the Cerignola criminal underworld.

To justify the financial movements in the accounts and to return the capital, largely "cleaned", into the hands of the perpetrators of the underlying crimes, a dense network of companies was used, some of which were also fictitiously registered to "front men", who issued/annotated invoices for non-existent transactions, also exploiting, as a vehicle for fraud, the execution of construction work for the creation of the luxurious accommodation facility of the Hotel San Barbato Resort SPA in Lavello (PZ).

In essence, between 2016 and 2020 the entrepreneur from Lavello illegally transferred money to the benefit of economic subjects linked to the “Cerignolano” criminal association of the Cartagena/Saracino family, through the interposition of Via Franco Mauro and Finiguerra Angelo, building contractors, concealing said "transfer" of money with the payments, for more than 20 million euros, relating to the construction and renovation works of the aforementioned hotel complex, initially entrusted to the companies registered in Via Franco Mauro (years 2015/2017) and subsequently to Finiguerra Angelo.

A second aspect concerned the illicit activities carried out by the entrepreneur's association aimed at carrying out tax fraud in the telephone sector. In order to obtain undue tax advantages and above all to have hi-tech products at highly competitive prices, through his companies, in fact, he participated in a massive carousel fraud that involved numerous companies located in Italy and in various European countries, including Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Poland.

Yet, the entrepreneur from Lavello, during the pandemic period, in collaboration with others, was the author of further illicit behaviors connected to the illicit hoarding of personal protective equipment, which are also not compliant with current provisions, by carrying out speculative maneuvers on essential products, by buying up over 13 million masks on the market at a time when there was a shortage, causing their rarefaction and increase in price on the domestic market. Lastly, the investigations also allowed us to perfectly crystallise the contours of a robbery with the use of weapons committed in 2023 by two other individuals, against a transporter from whom a tank containing 36 thousand litres of fuel for a value of approximately €50.000,00 was stolen.

The order, issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of Potenza at the request of this District Anti-Mafia Directorate, therefore comes at the end of a long investigative activity that has allowed us to put a stop to a deep-rooted criminal system characterized by elements of extraordinary gravity in relation to the conduct carried out and by an equally extraordinary modernity with reference to the fraudulent techniques adopted to achieve the illicit intentions.

At the centre, therefore, is the figure of an entrepreneur, the supreme architect of all the criminal machinations reconstructed during the investigations, hatched also thanks to the resources deriving from the corporate entities attributable to him which allowed him to make huge illicit profits, making him the main author of plots with dangerous criminal subjects interested in taking advantage of his position at a local level and the apparent respectability of his economic activities and with whom he has reached federal agreements, transferred into a criminal association.

And this is where they come into play. the leading criminal groups in the Foggia area, headed by the Saracino / Cartagena families, and they served themselves, precisely, of the aforementioned to launder money originating from thefts and robberies through a well-tested organizational structure, comparable, in some ways, to a real criminal business model. On the basis of the accusatory framework that emerged during the investigations, the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Court of Potenza has ordered:

• the pre-trial detention in prison of 7 individuals;
• house arrest against 2 subjects;
• the precautionary seizure for the equivalent of the sum of approximately 10 million euros, corresponding to the amount of the reconstructed recycling;
• the preventive seizure of the corporate assets of 10 companies, including SG SpA and Glam'our Italia Srl, whose overall value is around 170 million euros. The management has been entrusted to a judicial administrator.

Furthermore, considering that the latest investigative investigations have revealed that the ownership of the'Hotel San Barbato Resort SPA was transferred to a company specifically set up in 2024, SB Srl, based in Turin, always attributable to the above mentioned entrepreneur, this District Attorney's Office, given the conditions, has the emergency precautionary seizure of this company complex was also ordered. To execute the order, approximately 200 financial police officers and State Police officers were employed, who carried out numerous searches and seizures to ensure the price or profit of the various crimes contested, supported by “cash dog” and “anti-drug” canine units and by the support of the Air Section of the Guardia di Finanza of Naples.