Two precautionary custody orders in prison against Domenico and Rosario Arena, father and son, who are said to be included in the Pesce clan. The Carabinieri of the Gioia Tauro Group carried them out, with the operational support of personnel from the Heliported Hunters Squadron of Calabria and dog units.
The investigations from which the restrictive measures arise, issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Reggio Calabria, at the request of the local District Anti-Mafia Directorate directed by Giovanni Bombardieri, concern serious extortion conduct which has been perpetrated for a long time and private violence, all aggravated by mafia purposes, which occurred in Rosarno and Cinquefrondi.
Their modus operandi, combined with the repeated use of physical and verbal intimidation, would have resulted in ongoing oppression and interference in an economic activity located in the Gioia Tauro plain, as well as in the limitation of the freedom of self-determination of several people.
The investigations by the Carabinieri, which include, among other things, the declarations of some collaborators of justice, have allowed the prosecutors to shed light on some extortion carried out between Rosarno and Cinquefrondi. Like the one against the «Fattoria della Piana» agricultural cooperative in Candidoni and which, over time, according to investigators, has become a real one source of illicit family income. In fact, over the last 18 years, the two arrested would have imposed on the administrator of the cooperative the payment of periodic sums “as the price of the possibility of carrying out the business activity”.
The owner of the «Fattoria della Piana», essentially, had to deliver to Rosario Arena a sort of monthly salary including thirteenth month’s salary during the Christmas holidays. A part of the earnings from the restaurant business and biogas production, however, would have been paid to Domenico Arena’s other children who would also have obtained a couple of hires of people who enjoyed his protection.