Addressed to the Government, on the initiative of the Municipality of Verona through the mayor and the councilor for safety and legality together with Public Noticethe letter signed by the 98 mayors of Verona which requests the secondment to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Venice and the establishment of an operational section of the Investigative Directorate Anti-mafia.
The President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputieswho spoke today at the presentation in the Tapestry Room, confirmed his commitment to continuing the process.
The right to legality has no political color. Legality is not right or left. Legality does not have, and must not have, political color. It is a fundamental right of citizens, and whoever is in government of a community knows that ensuring its respect is his task, his duty. Even more so in a rich area like that of Verona and its province, which attracts business, infrastructure works, major events, and therefore also organized crime.
The mafia can only be fought together, but the appropriate tools are neededstarting with the establishment of an operational section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate and the secondment to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Venice.
A need that has been felt for years now, confirmed by the reports and data of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, and for which the Administration moved immediately, involving all the Municipalities of the Province for a unanimous and shared action. The result is the letter addressed to the ministers Piantedosi and Nordio and to the Veronese parliamentarians to finalize the request, a historic result for the unity and speed of the response. An involvement that the Administration has been working on for some time in collaboration with Notice public, of which it is a member and with which it is committed to carrying forward the culture of legality, respect for the rules and the fight against every type of mafia.
The six-monthly reports of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate have long highlighted how the Verona area is an area in which, together with the Calabrian mafia, other mafia-type organisations, both Italian and foreign, also operate, which are mainly active in the laundering of money of illicit origin in local economy, in the dealing of significant quantities of narcotic substances and in the exploitation of people for sexual and work purposes.
From 2022 to January 2024, the Prefecture of Verona has issued 22 anti-mafia interdictions – of which 4 collaborative preventions – towards companies operating in various production sectors in the Verona area and the Financial Intelligence Unit of Bank of Italy, in its latest report referring to 2023, it reported 1,972 suspicious financial transactions. Given that it places the province of Verona in second place in the whole of Veneto.
“This need arises from factual data which unfortunately have been highlighted by recent investigative operations and which have confirmed the presence of organized crime on our territory – said the mayor of Verona, Damiano Tommasi -. And it is easy to imagine that the interest of organized crime will increase in the coming months with the start of huge infrastructure works and major international events linked to investments that attract unsavory and often unrecognizable appetites. Thanks to the support of Notice Publico in recent months we have tried to raise the bar of attention and sensitivity by creating institutional antibodies that must all be on the same side, and we are demonstrating that we have no doubts about this. I really hope that this initiative can lead, thanks also to our territorial presence in the Roman institutions and at government level, to obtain this recognition. A result that would make it possible to concretely combat those who want business in an illicit manner by exploiting the fertile ground that Verona offers in terms of attendance, jobs and large-scale works. The need for the presence of a specific and strengthened investigative control in our province has been felt for some time, as also attested by the motion voted at the City Council of the Municipality of Verona on 30 August 2017 by all political forces, including the current President of the Commission Justice of the Chamber of Deputies, and resumed by the current Veronese City Council on 26 October 2022. I thank everyone for their presence, individually we will not have that strength that we have united” concluded the mayor, who recalled how the initiative finds the unanimity of the consensus of the institutions and law enforcement agencies who constantly discuss issues of safety and legality in the Provincial Committee for Security and Public Order.
“The recent Taurus and Isola Scaligera investigations have, as is known, attested to the rooting (not infiltration) of organized crime in the Verona area – says the councilor for Security, Transparency and Legality-. The phenomenon, in addition to being widespread, appears to be of high quality, such as to be able to significantly permeate some sectors of the economy and easily bring together both politics and important decision-making centers in the area. As well underlined on several occasions by the Prosecutor, it is essential that the nerve center of the investigations is nourished and starts from Verona, and not from Venice, whose geographical remoteness does not allow us to effectively grasp the signals and dynamics of our territories, nor does it allow the right reaction times to such signals. The need is strongly felt by the citizens of the entire territory of the province of Verona, as attested by the unanimous response given by their mayoral representatives who have, without exception and regardless of political affiliation, accepted the invitation of Public Notice and the Capital Municipality of formalize the request to the Ministers of Justice and the Interior to establish a headquarters for the District Anti-Mafia Directorate and a section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate in Verona. We are fortunate to live in a context of great challenges and great opportunities, which already now and even more so in the coming months and years will experience a season of important public investments and important works: from this derives the great responsibility of national institutions to give economy and citizens with the appropriate tools to protect it from the risks of a mafia presence that flows of money and a thriving economic fabric inevitably entail”.
The provincial coordinator of Public Notice in Verona, Daniele Zivelonghi: “It is a unique and extraordinary fact that all the Mayors of the province of Verona, with the President of the Province, have decided to accept the proposal to sign the letter that we will send to the parliamentarians, the regional councilors of Verona, the Minister of the Interior and Justice to request that a section of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate and the District Anti-Mafia Directorate be established in Verona. A request which in recent times has also been authoritatively explained by the Public Prosecutor, Dr. Raffaele Tito. In the last provincial coordination of Public Notice – which in the Verona area currently has 38 member municipalities, plus the Province and two publicly held companies – we had unanimously decided to support the motion voted on at the City Council of the Municipality of Verona on 30 August 2017 by all political forces, including the current President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and resumed by the current Veronese City Council on 26 October 2022. The Veronese Mayors send an important message to the territory: against organized crime, action is needed of organized legality, which involves not only the judiciary and the police forces – to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks for the work they carry out in the Verona area – but also politics, the world of economics and civil society”.
“As in the fight against Covid, all mayors unite against another invisible enemy, organized crime – said the president of the Province -.Today a new path begins which calls on the representatives of the Government and the parliamentarians of Verona”.
The President of the Justice Commission of the Chamber of Deputies intervened by recalling the commitment required of the Government to establish a detached section of the Venice Court of Appeal in Verona. Commitment contained in a resolution approved last May by the Commission he chairs which deals with justice. “The presence in the area of an operational section of the DIA and the secondment to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Verona of a magistrate from the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Venice court would strengthen the work and actions against the crime and would strengthen the measures already in place – said the President of the Commission -. However, first we need to bring the Court of Appeal to Verona, a proposal already filed and included in the geography of the justice reform”.
Tags: Fight mafias Verona unanimous request signed mayors bring DIA DDA territory
