Reduced sentences for the two defendants from Strongoli accused of attempted extortion against a building contractor. Today, the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro, in light of the agreement between the public prosecution and the defence, imposed 5 years in prison on 56-year-old Giuseppe Mario Fazio, known as “Peppe a mafia” (in the first instance trial which took place with the abbreviated procedure he received 6 years) and 3 years and 4 months in prison on 33-year-old Francesco Serra (4 years in the first instance).
Fazio and Serra were arrested by the Carabinieri on 31 January 2025 as part of an investigation launched by the Catanzaro DDA after the complaint presented by the owner of a construction company in Strongoli. From whom the two alleged torturers attempted to extort “protection money” between 26 November and 12 December 2024. The Carabinieri investigators reconstructed the facts also through the acquisition of video surveillance images. And so it turned out that in three circumstances the defendants had demanded payment of sums ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 euros, as extortion for the work that the entrepreneur was carrying out.
The person who asked for the money, at different times, was Fazio, who told the victim that the money would be used for legal expenses. While Serra would have acted as “facilitator” and driver of Fazio himself. According to what the victim reported to the military, Fazio also went to the company offices to complain about the fact that the entrepreneur had decided to turn to the police. At the end of the first degree trial, the aggravating circumstance of having facilitated the Giglio di Strongoli gang was dropped, which was contested by the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office. Fazio was defended by the lawyer Gianni Russano, Serra was assisted by the lawyer Giovanni Mauro.