Anti-mafia operation “Athena”, judicial auctions in the crosshairs: investigations in Catania, Teramo and Syracuse

Auctions driven by the mafia, with the complicity of a professional. The operation taken at dawn is called “Athena”. Over 300 carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Catania have carried out in the Provinces of Catania, Syracuse and Teramo, an order applying precautionary measures against 17 people, for mafia association, association aimed at drug trafficking, drug dealing, disorderly freedom of enchantments with the aggravating circumstances of the mafia method and corruption.

The investigation, coordinated by the Etna DDA and conducted by the Carabinieri of the Paternò Company, started from the complaint of a local entrepreneur, threatened by some mafiosi to have him withdraw a plot of land from auction. In addition to the criminal dynamics and the top elements of the Morabito-Rapisarda group (attributable to the Catania Laudani clan), active in Paternò, the organisation’s appetites for the systematic control of judicial auctions of properties located in the provinces of Catania and Syracuse also emerged. . The operation of the gang would have foreseen the ‘physical’ intervention of affiliates during the sales procedures, to remove the participants even with violence, guaranteeing the ‘customers’ of the clan the purchase or return to possession of the goods.

The ‘successful’ auctions would have guaranteed the gang substantial profits, also shared with the Assinata group (part of the Santapaola-Ercolano Cosa Nostra family from Catania), demonstrating a ‘cohabitation’ pact. Also involved in one of the piloted auctions was a Syracuse lawyer who, as delegate for the sale, during a judicial enforcement procedure, would have favored the awarding of an apartment to the son of the person who had turned to the mafia association. The activities of the Morabito-Rapisardas also include trafficking and retail dealing of drugs. During the investigations, a total of approximately 71 kilos of marijuana and cocaine were seized, arresting 8 people in flagrante delicto.