They have lived within the family, they know its secrets, its command structure and its ability to instill terror. As in other investigations, also in that of the Reggio Calabria anti-mafia prosecutor’s office “Blu notte” the role of the collaborators was important in giving an inside look into the dynamics of the Bellocco gang of Rosarno, one of the most powerful and respected clans in Calabria.
In the reasons for the first degree sentence, with which the district judge convicted 42 defendants of mafia association and a series of other crimes, the contribution of the repentants is valorised, especially that of Vincenzo Albanese, son-in-law of Rocco Bellocco.
Albanese decided to collaborate in 2015, because he had been arrested for drug trafficking, in the company of a woman who was not his wife. He feared being killed. A doubt that had turned into certainty after the loss of a telephone that the Bellocco man used to communicate, in a relationship of confidential collaboration, with the Carabinieri of Gioia Tauro: «That is – he explains to the investigators – why they kill Christians… that is, this is where they are sure to kill them».
Albanese explains to the magistrates the specific weight of the Belloccos in the criminal panorama, starting from the founder Umberto Bellocco, born in ’37, known as “assu i mazzi”. «Doctor – declares Albanese – I learned this from my father-in-law, that your brother is above everyone and no one is above him, he said that perhaps someone, but he was referring to the ionic part as much as he was, I learned from VZ, he told me, one day he confided in me… about Umberto Bellocco: “But you see that your uncle is all him – he says – you… he invented everything – he says – he built everything, everyone owes something to him”.
Doctor, what I saw in twenty-two years, before he came out, what they told me, when he came out I saw it materialize…. when he came out all the… all lowered their heads and he said to him: “Is there anyone who shouldn’t give it to me?” and everyone told him that he is right, to make you understand.”
Both from Albanese, and from the other collaborators of justice mentioned in the order (Giuseppe Cacciola, the former Rosarnese lawyer Vittorio Pisani convicted in the case of Concetta Cacciola and Roberto Furuli of Lauerana di Borrello), the investigators and then the GUP redesign the chain of command of the Bellocco gang, in light of the death in 2022 of Umberto born in ’37 and the harsh prison to which his cousin Gregorio is subjected cl. 55 and to the brothers Giuseppe ’48, up to the other brothers Carmelo cl. ’53, Michele cl. ’50.
Consequently, the power structures were redistributed between the respective children, since Mario Bellocco cl. 41, despite not being held in prison, does not appear to have the same criminal depth as his brothers… «The rules of the organization are however respected – explains the investigating judge – according to which the regency fell to the latter’s son, since a prominent role can be found in the hands of Domenico Bellocco cl. 76, with greater criminal depth than his eldest brother Umberto cl. 72.
This investigation has made it possible to ascertain the dynamics by which some members of the gang, not recognizing the authority of Domenico Bellocco cl. 76, had identified their point of reference in Umberto Bellocco cl. 83, called “chiacchiera”, son of Giuseppe cl. ’48, not subjected to the detention regime referred to in art. 41 bis unlike his older brother Domenico cl. 77 (called Mica u longu) and his cousin Giuseppe cl. 87 (son of Gregorio ’55 and therefore known as testazza). Other subjects, who will be called “Splitters”, referred precisely to Domenico Bellocco born in ’76, evidently considering him an authoritative exponent of the family, as an alternative to Umberto Bellocco cl. ’83”.