The anti-drug operation of the Marsala Carabinieri “Fox” (blitz of 9 May 2023) reaches its first judicial scrutiny. The judge of the preliminary hearings Riccardo Alcamo has, in fact, sentenced four of the eleven defendants for whom the Prosecutor’s Office requested to be sent to trial in an abbreviated manner.
The investigation shed light on cocaine trafficking between Catania and Marsala. According to the prosecution, approximately two kilos of cocaine would arrive at Capo Beo every month which would have “flooded – the investigators explained – the city, favoring very lucrative illicit revenues for traffickers”.
And just yesterday in Marsala, a new anti-drug operation led to the arrest of four people and the seizure of a tobacco shop in the Amabilina district (you can read all the details here).
The sentences – The harshest sentence (four and a half years in prison, plus a 24 thousand euro fine) was inflicted on the convicted felon from Marsala Vincenzo Fabio Licari, while the Catanian Agatino Lorenzo Abate was sentenced to two years, plus a 10 thousand euro fine. The other two convicted are Riccardo Giacalone (1 year and 8 months, and a 4 thousand euro fine) and Carlo Frazzitta (a year and a half and 9 thousand euro fine), both from Marsala. For Licari and Abate, the prosecutor Fernando Asaro had requested a 10-year prison sentence, while four years had been requested for Giacalone and 2 years and 8 months for Frazzitta. Abate and Frazzitta were sentenced “continuously” with a previous sentence. The lawyers Luigi Pipitone, Vincenzo Forti and Francesca Frusteri defended the four.
The other defendants sent to trial – Seven other defendants were sent to trial before the Marsala Court (monocratic). They are Pietro Marino, Gaspare Maurizio Giannone, Vincenzo Andrea Giannone, Giuseppe La Mantia, Francesco Vinci, Alberto Giacalone and Loris Carmelo Abate. Except for the latter, who is from Catania, they are all from Marsala. The trial against them will begin on June 26th. Among the other lawyers involved, Andrea Pellegrino.
Fourteen people were investigated in the “Fox” operation, six of whom were arrested. Vincenzo Fabio Licari, Pietro Marino and Agatino Lorenzo Abate were locked up in prison. Giorgia Marino (Pietro’s daughter), Giovanna Martino, both released after about two months, and Loris Carmelo Abate were placed under house arrest. Mandatory residence was ordered for Vittoria Stefania Squillace, Gaspare Maurizio and Vincenzo Andrea Giannone, Francesco Vinci and Giuseppe La Mantia. Three other suspects on foot
free.
Vincenzo Fabio Licari and the “Pieruccio bar” – As part of the same investigation, on June 1, 2023, the preventive seizure of movable and immovable assets “attributable” to Vincenzo Fabio Licari had been initiated. Among the assets to which the seals were placed, also the “bar Pieruccio”, next to the Marsala “Paolo Borsellino” hospital. For investigators, the bar and other seized assets are the proceeds of drug trafficking or in any case have a disproportionate value compared to the income declared by Licari. The seizure was carried out by the Carabinieri in execution of a provision issued by the investigating judge at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office. The latter, in fact, unemployed, according to the accusation, making use of frontmen or close relatives to evade patrimonial investigations, would have had the direct availability, together with his wife, of two properties, a house on three levels and the kiosk used as a bar , which were also built illegally, and various movable assets (two cars and two mopeds), of an unjustifiable value compared to the declared income.
In the “Fox” operation there were already sTwo vehicle sales and rental companies, based in Marsala, were subjected to preventive seizurewith which the suspects allegedly organised, on several occasions, the transport of drugs from Catania to Marsala using unsuspected rental cars.
