Behind the hateful and barbaric mistreatment of animals there is often the hand of organized crime. And here is the term Zoomafiaa recently coined neologism, takes on an increasingly relevant meaning with respect to the illicit conduct brought to light by the police. This word marks, among other things, the traditional report prepared and disseminated by the National Observatory of Lav, the Anti-Vivisection League. Which for 2024 shows worrying scenarios to say the least (referring to 2023). The province of Messina is no exception, where there was an increase in the number of people subjected to investigation, equal to 47.06%.. And what about Catania, fourth overall in Italy – with 179 proceedings and 69 suspects -, after Brescia, Verona and Udine? Enna, however, is placed on the white list, thanks to the 22 proceedings and 15 suspects.
Moving on to juvenile justice, the Prosecutor’s Office for minors with the highest number of proceedings is that of Turin, with 6 trials and 4 suspects. Followed by Palermo which, with 5 proceedings and 13 suspects, is in first place for the number of young people reported. Again: Naples with 5 proceedings and 3 suspects; Messina with 4 proceedings (3 for animal abuse and 1 for illegal horse racing) and 8 suspects (5 for animal abuse and 3 for illegal horse racing); Catania with 4 proceedings and 5 suspects. The largest number of boys investigated, 33, is for animal abuse; 21, however, those who have to answer for killing animals and 8 for clandestine horse racing. It should be underlined that 66.13% of the young people investigated at a national level live in the South and that some of these complaints concern particularly serious facts due to the strong connections with organized crime, such as clandestine horse racing. In this “set”, compared to 2022, the proceedings increased by 64%, going from 25 to 41 and the suspects by 114%, going from 29 to 62.
Returning to Messina, to the activities of the ordinary prosecutor’s office, in total in 2023 63 proceedings were registered with 50 suspects. Compared to 2022, the number of files is unchanged: 63, while the number of suspects has grown from 34 to 50.
In a passage from Zoomafia 2024, among other things, some conclusions contained in the report for the first half of 2023 of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate are cited: «The Tortoricians and Batanesi would continue to show interest, as well as in traditional sectors such as drug trafficking, above all in the illicit hoarding of public funding intended for agro-pastoral development, also perpetrated through the involvement of professionals. The assets illicitly accumulated over time by the cliques in question have been affected over time by various ablative measures. Among these, a confiscation issued by the Court of Messina on 30 March 2022 and executed on 26 May 2022 by the Dia of Messina, which the Court of Cassation, with a sentence dated 28 September 2022, made definitive in relation to the assets, already seized and estimated at over 6.8 million euros, attributable to an entrepreneur from Naso already convicted of usury in 2005 and in relationships with some prominent exponents of the Tortoriciani”.