The Crotone Criminal Court acquitted the former mayor of Melissa, Raffaele Falbo, because the fact does not exist, from the charge of undue inducement to give or promise benefits aggravated by the desire to facilitate a mafia gang. Falbo was sent to trial in September 2023 following the complaint presented by an entrepreneur, owner of the Gost company of Assisi which at the time managed the Melissa purification plant.
According to the accusation, the then mayor, abusing his position and powers, forced the owner of the company to hire the son of a member of the Farao-Marincola gang from Cirò on a permanent basis. For this reason, the accusation hypothesized by the Catanzaro DDA against Falbo was originally that of extortion aggravated by mafia methods, which was then declassified during the trial when the entrepreneur, testifying in the courtroom, denied having been pressured or threatened to hire that employee. Indeed, during the hearing, it was ascertained that the company’s own employees had advocated for the hiring. The affair involving the former mayor Falbo, which exploded a few months before the municipal elections, had led the prefecture of Crotone to send an anti-mafia access commission. In fear of a dissolution of the council which could have occurred immediately after the consultations, however, no political force had presented lists.