But what an anti-mafia blitz! This morning’s one, at most, is more like the drug raids that Doctor Cozzolino stages to give citizens an idea of the operation of the Bruzia prosecutor’s office, and to divert their attention from “news” that is more compromising for the system. We say this not to defend those arrested this morning, but to give them the criminal qualification they deserve: the last wheel of the drug dealing system in Cosenza, like the characters who end up in Cozzolino’s network. It’s not enough to have included the usual prominent names of the local ‘Ndrangheta in the ordinance (Patitucci, Piromallo, Di Puppo, Porcaro, among other things all already detained and accused of the same crime), to elevate many of those arrested this morning to narcos. Those who know the city and its criminal aspects know well that many of those arrested, dedicated to street dealing in very small quantities, are in the “circle” certainly not out of ideological adherence to the local ‘Ndrangheta, but out of needs linked to drug addiction. Which doesn’t absolve them, but that’s what it is. But the fact remains that in the city where two kilos of cocaine a week are sold, the narcos certainly cannot be them.
In fact, it is the Catanzaro DDA itself that describes the low “criminal quality” of those arrested, summarizing in the title given to today’s operation the underlying philosophy (even if not expressed) that inspired the anti-mafia magistrates. The code name chosen for the operation is “Recovery”. Which in Italian means “Recovery”. A more than apt name, because many of those arrested really need to “be recovered”, perhaps in a “recovery” facility for drug addicts.
