Another sentence, this time to 10 years and 6 months in prison, for 63-year-old Antonio Gualtieri, one of the leaders of the Grande Aracri di Cutro gang in Emilia. And together with him, his 57-year-old brother, Rosario Gualtieri, were also sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison and his 58-year-old brother-in-law, Alfonso Durante, to 2 years in prison. Instead, two defendants settled: the 38-year-old, Irina Irimca, for 1 year, 4 months and 20 days and the 67-year-old Stefano Martini for 1 year and 6 months. This is how the summary trial ended today before the preliminary hearing judge of the Court of Bologna, Letizio Magliaro.
The alleged crimes
Antonio Gualtieri was arrested by the State Police in the autumn of 2024, 20 days after he had finished serving the 12-year sentence for mafia association imposed on him in the “Aemilia” trial. Auction rigging, extortion, fictitious registration of assets and failure to communicate changes in assets, aggravated by mafia: the crimes committed against the 63-year-old for crimes committed in Reggio Emilia in the years 2019-2022.
But the judge, in confirming the accusatory system of the DDA of Bologna, reclassified the charge of extortion as an arbitrary exercise of his own reasons with the aggravating mafia.
The accusations of the investigators
According to the investigators, Gualtieri attempted to collect a credit of 190 thousand euros owed by a family member to a real estate agent in Reggio Emilia, complete with death threats to him and his relatives. Then, through a company of which he was the hidden owner, he would have managed to regain possession of the properties sold at auction.
Finally, he allegedly threatened some people from Reggio who were awarded land for a sum of 92 thousand euros, to the point of forcing them to resell the property to the company of which he was the hidden owner, under the conditions he imposed.
The positions of the other defendants
While his brother Rosario Gualtieri was found responsible for extortion, bid rigging and money laundering, aggravated by mafia; During auction rigging without aggravating mafia.