«In the municipality of Tropeawhose elective bodies were renewed in the administrative consultations of 21 October 2018, forms of interference by organized crime which compromises the free determination and impartiality of the local administrationas well as the good performance and functioning of services with serious prejudice to public order and safety”. The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, put it down in black and white in his request to request the dissolution of the Tropea municipal council. This then promptly occurred with a resolution of the Council of Ministers on April 23rd.
According to the owner of the Interior Ministry, «overall, the investigations carried out have highlighted alterations and compromises of administrative action with reference to multiple sectors of intervention which have largely translated to the advantage of subjects connected in various capacities, directly or indirectly, with the hegemonic criminal associations in the area. The inspection findings of alleged influence and/or connection of some administrators and some employees with local organized crime, as outlined by the access commission, provide unambiguous, concrete and relevant elements of direct and/or indirect connection of the members of the bodies electives with local organized crime”.
For these reasons, the minister always maintains, «following the assessment and investigation activity carried out by the Investigation Commission at the municipal administration of Tropea, it was concrete and uniquely relevant elements were found which reach a level of significance such as to be able to adequately justify the application of the dissolving measure of the elective bodies of the Municipality of Tropea provided for by article 143 of legislative decree no. 267/2000, in order to restore legality and avoid further alterations in the process of forming the free determination of those elective bodies, which currently jeopardize the good performance of the administration”.
«In Tropea there was electoral support for the historically hegemonic 'Ndrangheta gang in the area» – i.e. the La Rosa clan – «to the mayor and his list on the occasion of the electoral round of 21 October 2018. The mayor, the deputy mayor and a councilor have close family ties and frequent contacts with exponents of local organized crime, also involved in associative crimes, and this state of things has influenced administrative activity in favor of contraindicated environments”. The owner of the Interior Ministry then recalls that the caretaker of the Tropea cemetery was arrested for «unauthorized exhumations in order to reuse some niches and allocate them to the deceased attributable to individuals belonging to the local gang, as well as to the municipal administrators themselves and, in particular, to the mayor”.
Minister Piantedosi's report then recalls «the emblematic fact that in September 2020 the aforementioned Trecate employee, despite being the recipient of a request for indictment for fraud against the Municipality, even received a commendation from the mayor for “self-sacrifice at work”. The mayor of Tropea – now suspended – was the lawyer Giovanni Macrì, an expression of Forza Italia.
The report also reveals other previously unpublished episodes. One of them concerns the purchase by the lawyer Giovanni Macrì, who became mayor in October 2018, of an Audi A6 for private use. The affair, according to the minister, «proves the existence of relationships and associations between the mayor and exponents of organized crime since the purchase by the mayor of the car – formally registered in the name of his mother-in-law, without a driving license, of top exponents of the local organized crime – was the subject of financial measures by the judicial authorities. Also for the prefect of Vibo – recalls the minister's report – the affair represents a clear symptom of the absolute closeness of the mayor of Tropea to organized crime circlesgiven that no local administrator, or aspiring one, who bases his work on principles of integrity would establish commercial relationships with contraindicated individuals, providing clear support to them in order to avoid the application of patrimonial measures ordered to their detriment”.
The car bought by the mayor was subjected to confiscation against the boss Antonio La Rosacurrently detained in hard prison, believed to be the head of the Tropea clan of the same name.