The former mayor of Cerva, Fabrizio Rizzuti, the then city councilor Raffaele Scalzi and the former majority councilor Raffaele Borelli, have chosen the abbreviated rite, attributed in the trial Karpanthos. The procedure, resulting from an investigation by the District Anti -Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro, aims to shed light on a double association of the type ‘Ndranghetistico and dedicated to drug trafficking, characterized by the availability of weapons and illegal activities such as extortion, robberies, receiving stolen goods, recycling and fictitious header of goods. The investigations affected the territories of Petronà, Mesoraca, Cropani, Isola, Cerva, Milan and Lucca.
The three defendants, accused of a political-mafia exchange vote, had already been indicted with other involved who had opted for the ordinary preliminary hearing. In that phase, the defenders Giovanni Morante and Amedeo Bianco had raised an exception of territorial incompetence before the Court of Crotone, who had transferred the documents to Catanzaro. The DDA had therefore renewed the request for indictment and, in the preliminary hearing, the three opted for the alternative rite.
According to the accusatory hypotheses, on the occasion of the municipal elections of 11 June 2017, the three candidates, together with Tommaso Scalzi and Massimo Rizzuti (already on trial with abbreviated rite), would have squeezed an agreement with Tommaso Scalzi, originally from Cerva and already sentenced for mafia association, as believed to be belonging to the guided gang in Lombardy by Franco Found. The agreement would have foreseen the electoral support in exchange for money and a percentage on public procurement awarded by the Municipality.
The “Future Project” civic list, led by Fabrizio Rizzuti, won the elections with 436 votes against 416 on the opponent’s “Union for Cerva” list, obtaining 7 out of 10 seats in the City Council. Among the elected, in addition to the mayor Rizzuti (32 votes), Jessica Scalzi (57), Raffaele Scalzi (94), Christmas Agostino (47), Simone Colosimo (46), Raffaele Borelli (43), Veronica Gentile (33) and Alessio Sacco (32) were.
The district gup Sara Merlini has postponed the hearing to 10 February, the date on which the indictment of the public prosecutor Veronica Calcagno is expected.
The investigation Karpanthosconducted by the carabinieri of the investigative nucleus of Catanzaro, takes the ancient name of the city of Petronà. The investigators believe that it has allowed to document the activity of two criminal groups of the Catanzaro pre -aila: the Carpinian gang of Petronà, already involved in the 2000s in a bloody feud, and the group of the so -called “Cervesi”, both under the influence of the Mesoraca club. According to the accusation, the two joints would have been active in the extortion against building entrepreneurs and traders in the area, with branches also in Lecco, Genoa and Turin.