The first to appear before the judge for preliminary investigations of Palazzo Piacentini Tiziana Leanza, among the thirteen arrested in the anti-drug operation conducted by the Messina DDA and the Financial Policewill be at the Messina Courthouse tomorrow at noon Francesco Cotugno, Salvatore Ratto, Salvatore Ridinò and Piera Mondello, confined in Gazzi prison. The prosecution accuses them of drug dealing while, in addition to the woman herself, Michele Siragusano, Dario Di Perna, Emiliano Franzone, Mirko Maniaci and Antonino Tuccio will also have to answer for criminal conspiracy.
For the last five, transferred to the Syracuse prison, the appointment with investigating judge Andrea Migneco, who is proceeding via letter rogatory, is scheduled to start from 11am next Tuesday. Finally, the other four arrested will be heard in Catania and Calabria, the Calabrians Sebastiano Pelle, Bruno Emanuele and Giuseppe Licastro, as well as the Paternian Antonino Pappalardo. The guarantee interrogation, with the relative requests of the defenders to the investigating judge, then the possible passage to the Review, will therefore represent the first examination of the precautionary needs and of the articulated accusatory compendium, expressed in the 41 charges, through which it was shed light on a vast drug ring, mainly cocaine, which reached the Nebroid squares from Calabria, with an operational base between Sant’Angelo di Brolo and Raccuja. A “quite thriving” business, as defined by investigating judge Leanza in her order, managed by a group that acted “with high professionalism and organized in such a way as to run as few risks as possible”. A partnership at the top of which the investigators place the 48-year-old Michele Siragusano from Sant’Angelo, whose name was already known since he ended up in various proceedings for drug trafficking and more, as well as in the “Luna” operations, for which he was acquitted, and “Rinascita”, which also included events linked to the Bontempo Scavo clans of Tortorici, Aglieri-Rinella of Palermo and the Santapaola family from Catania. The cornerstone of the investigative reconstruction was the tracing of the numerous “relay” journeys through which the Nebroid group shuttled across the Strait for the supply of the narcotic. Five trips were intercepted by the Fiamme Gialle in the period from January to May 2022 alone, a frequency which for the prosecution represents confirmation of the “substantial economic resources” on which the group rested its foundations, “an indication of the solidity of the organization and the its pervasiveness in the relevant business sector”.
Read the complete article in the paper edition of Gazzetta del Sud – Messina