The hearing before the Catanzaro preliminary hearing judge Maria Cristina Flesca is scheduled for December 12th. The district judge will have to rule on the request for indictment made by the DDA of the capital against all 285 suspects involved in “Olimpo”, “Imperium” and “Maestrale-Carthago”. The three burning investigations which revealed the infiltration of the Vibonese clans into the economic activities of the area and the relationships with representatives of the public administration, business and lawyers have been brought together in a single file.
Many excellent names were involved in the investigations of the Prosecutor’s Office led until a few weeks ago by the prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who signed the provision closing the investigations with the deputy Vincenzo Capomolla (now acting prosecutor) and the prosecutors Annamaria Frustaci, Andrea Buzzelli And
Olympus
The investigation focuses on the alleged interests of the Vibonese ‘Ndrangheta in the tourism sector. 56 people were arrested (78 under investigation in total). The charges are mafia-style criminal association, external conspiracy, extortion, illegal possession and possession of weapons, kidnapping, fraudulent transfer of values, illicit competition with violence and threats and trafficking in illicit influence, crimes aggravated by the method and ‘mafia facilitation; as well as corruption, disclosure of official secrets and criminal association aimed at receiving stolen goods and laundering agricultural machinery, aggravated by transnationality and also in this case by mafia facilitation. For the investigators, the investigations revealed how the Vibo clans were fully “inserted into the local economic context both in entrepreneurial activities linked to the tourism, hotel and restaurant sectors, and in control over the supply system in the circuit of the same structures”. A total control of the territory which would have been achieved also thanks to the connivance of the so-called white collar workers.
Mistral-Carthago
The detention order concerns 61 people (167 people are under investigation). The investigation would have made it possible to map the geography of organized crime in the municipalities of Mileto, Filandari, Zungri, Briatico and Cessaniti, reconstructing the roles, tasks and dynamics of the leaders, promoters, organizers and participants of the mafia associations, highlighting their strong economic vocation – entrepreneurship and the ability to build fluid relationships with “white collar workers”: together with the elite of organized crime, the names of the “unsuspected” appear. The charges also include the murder of the businesswoman Maria Chindamo contested a Salvatore Ascone.
Imperium
The ‘Ndrangheta had long had its hands on some hotel complexes on the Costa degli Dei, conditioning their activity and influencing their management. This is what emerged from the investigation which led to the arrest of four people linked to the Mancuso gang (48 suspects, 11.5 million in assets seized). And of one of these hotels, in particular, the Sayonara in Nicotera Marina, the control was such that it was possible to organize important mafia summits there. Some of which were attended by members of Cosa Nostra. Meetings that served to test the ‘Ndrangheta’s willingness to participate in the so-called “massacre strategy” that Cosa Nostra implemented in the early 1990s.
Excellent suspects
The request for indictment concerns, among others: the former general director of the Tourism Department of the Calabria Region Pasquale Anastasiaccused of trafficking in illicit influence aggravated by mafia methods; Rodolfo Bova, former head of the Region’s Tourism Department; the former manager of the ASP of Vibo (and current health director of the Villa Sant’Anna clinic in Catanzaro) Cesare Pasqua (accused of external complicity in a mafia association); the former president of the Province of Vibo Andrea Niglia (aggravated fraud in relation to a competition); Saveria Anjou (employee of the Prefecture of Vibo Valentia, as well as sister-in-law of the boss of Tropea Antonio La Rosa), Maria Vittoria Errigo (nutritionist from the Asp of Vibo); the lawyers of the Vibo Court Azzurra Pelaggi, Francesco Sabatino And Daniela Garisto; the trade unionist Gianfranco La Torre; the medical examiner Alfonso Luciano; the former regional councilor Francescantonio Stillitani and his entrepreneur brother Emanuele Stillitani.