It is a disturbing picture that emerges from the reports of the Ministry of the Interior and the prefecture of Messina which on 6 August led to the dissolution of the Municipality of Mazzarrà Sant’Andrea due to mafia infiltration.
The second dissolution in the short space of a few years (the first in 2015). The “intricate network of parental relationships and acquaintances” between some administrators and exponents of the Mazzarroti gang was highlighted, underlining how these relationships “have in fact influenced the administrative activity” to the point of making the prefectural commission believe that “in the municipality of Mazzarrà Sant’Andrea there are a plurality of pathological situations” which have “weakened the safeguards of legality”.
It is the result, according to the reasons for the provision, of “concrete, unambiguous and relevant elements on direct and indirect connections of local administrators with organized crime of the mafia type and on forms of conditioning of the same”.
For the Rita Atria anti-mafia association, this «must not only lead civil society to deep reflection, but must encourage the institutions to be more vigilant in order to preventively prevent the repetition of such events. As an Association which, for over thirty years, has carried out its anti-mafia commitment, with coherence, courage and dedication, we have always turned the spotlight on, and in some cases even denounced with our complaints to the judiciary the mix between mafia, politics, entrepreneurship, as well as the critical issues and opacities that have emerged in the management of confiscated assets. Emblematic is the story of the management of the assets confiscated from the Ofria family of Barcelona, a proceeding in which our participation as a civil party was recognized. On which we have recently presented further complaints, trusting that we believe they deserve to be included in an investigation because this territory is seriously compromised by these mafia managements and collusions.”
Similarly, «we hope for further insights also on what was raised by the reasons for the dissolution of the Municipality of Mazzarrà».