Anti-usury operation by the State Police in Messina. Upon delegation from the Peloritana Prosecutor’s Office, the agents carried out an order for the application of personal precautionary measures, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Messina, against five people investigated for the crime of usury.
Four house arrests
The provision comes at the end of the preventive interrogations of February 16th and provides for house arrest for four suspects, while a fifth was ordered to report to the judicial police.
The names
House arrest for: Fabio Tortorella, Angelo Muni, Giuseppe Finocchiaro, Pietro Mazzitello. Obligation to report to the PG for Giovanni Pennestrì.
A victim’s report
The investigation is part of a broader investigative line coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Messina and conducted by the Flying Squad of the Messina Police Headquarters. The investigations made it possible to reconstruct a solid circumstantial framework relating to various usury incidents taking place in the city area, which emerged thanks to the victim’s complaint.
The offended person reported having taken out multiple loans under oppressive conditions over time, providing investigators with details on the creditors, the sums received and the amounts already repaid or still owed.
Usurious loans with rates around 300%
Among the disputed episodes, one involving a 51-year-old from Messina who, taking advantage of the victim’s state of need, granted a loan demanding interest and further benefits until the total repayment of the capital, with an annual rate of around 300%. Similar conduct was attributed to a 55-year-old, also from Messina: what initially appeared as a “friendly loan” was traced, in light of the investigations, to a usurious relationship.
Further illicit conduct was alleged against a 47-year-old, a 42-year-old and a 30-year-old who, according to the accusation, lent money to the same victim, demanding the repayment of sums far higher than those disbursed, applying rates well above the threshold established by law and also resorting to threats to obtain payments.
Another arrested while receiving sums of money
During the investigations, the Flying Squad also arrested another person in the act, caught while receiving a sum of money as an installment of a usurious loan. The operation represents a new intervention in the fight against the phenomenon of usury, a crime which particularly affects people in economic difficulty, often forced to turn to illegal credit channels.