“We’ll see to it.” It is a phrase that in the interceptions of the “Res Tauro” investigation returns like a tight thread through the affairs that revolve in the Gioia Tauro Plain. That “we”, according to the reconstruction of the DDA of Reggio Calabria, is not generic: it refers to the perimeter of influence of the Piromalli gang, which the ROS information describes as still capable of casting its shadow on major works.
The investigation coordinated by the prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli and the deputy Stefano Musolino photographs a context in which infrastructures such as high speed, regasification terminals and energy plants become much more than public projects. They are potential construction sites, money flows, chains of subcontracts. And therefore, in the intercepted conversations, objects of interest.
Pino Piromalli, known as “Facciazza”, is at the center of several passages. For the Carabinieri del ROS, the relevant data is the declared interest in strategic works, many of which are also linked to public resources such as those of the Pnrr. It is in this scenario that infrastructures become, in investigative reading, a constant point of attraction. Piromalli, in the wiretaps, claims a clear position: «I’m in Gioia… the ugliest of the Piromalli… we sing the music, we drive it… everyone knows that you can’t pass through Gioia, the rules have changed». A statement that the investigators read as an expression of unequivocal control over the territory.
Next to him, the figure of Rocco Trunfio emerges, indicated as one of the boss’s main contacts and a link with entrepreneurial and Masonic circles. It is Trunfio who talks about the regasification terminal, evoking the role of the president of the Calabria Region Roberto Occhiuto and the possibility that the work will be built in the Gioia Tauro area, keeping an eye on the political movements that could bring the works that the gang has its eyes on to the Plain.
«There’s Occhiuto… the president – says Trunfio – who wants to be a regasifier». «Where do they put it? » asks Piromalli. «Here in Gioia», replies Trunfio, adding: «if the right goes up, Occhiuto said he will do it… and he had already found the company, this Occhiuto had found the place».
The papers also contain reference to a biomass plant, indicated as a deal worth around 200 million euros. The figure of an uninvestigated engineer from Cosenza fits into this context, described by his interlocutors as close to circuits of freemasonry and the business world, with previous experience in infrastructure and politics. For investigators, it is a further channel of contact between different environments.
Around this nucleus, what is defined in the information as a “magic circle” is built: entrepreneurs, technicians and intermediaries who move between construction sites and projects.
Among the names mentioned, there is also a foreign administrator active in the biomass sector and the presence of a former policeman with political ambitions. In an intercepted conversation, the latter talks about the possibility of “getting involved” with a company and having access to useful data for the future management of public funds. In the event of election, it is reported, he could have dealt with Pnrr, tenders and projects.
In the framework outlined by “Res Tauro”, large works represent a terrain in which, according to investigators, there is a constant interest in what generates contracts and economic flows. And where, in the interceptions, the underlying belief always remains the same: “we’ll take care of it”.
