They would have attempted to impose mafia control on some business activities in Locride, leveraging the name and criminal weight of the “Barbaro-Castani” gang. For this reason, two people were arrested by the Carabinieri of the Locri Company, coordinated by the Anti-Mafia District Directorate of Reggio Calabria, on charges of attempted extortion aggravated by the mafia method.
The measure was carried out between the municipalities of Bovalino and Platì at the end of an investigative activity developed around the monitoring of some construction sites in the Ionian area of Reggio.
Two incidents of attempted extortion occurred between October 2025 and March 2026
According to what emerged from the investigations, the two suspects – one of whom acted with the support of an accomplice in the role of driver – were responsible for two separate episodes of attempted extortion which occurred between October 2025 and March 2026.
In the first case, the suspects entered the yard of a construction company demanding the delivery of cash from the owner. During the action they apparently made explicit reference to their belonging to the “Barbaro-Castani” mafia family and to the detention of some associates, in an attempt to intimidate the entrepreneur.
In the second episode, which took place inside a construction site, one of the suspects threatened the workers with completely blocking the work if he was unable to meet the company owners. Also in this case, according to the investigators, the intimidating pressure would have been exerted by evoking the criminal weight of the gang in question.
The denunciation of the entrepreneurs was decisive
The contribution of the victims, who reported the incidents to the Carabinieri, choosing not to give in to the extortion requests, was crucial for the investigation. The statements collected by the investigators were supported by further investigative evidence, including photographic identifications and images of the video surveillance systems which would have documented the passage of the car used by one of the suspects at times compatible with the commission of the crimes.
The operation once again confirms the importance of collaboration between entrepreneurs and law enforcement in countering the pressures of organized crime on the economic fabric of the area.