A twist in the legal case of the “New West Ranch” of Cella, which has involved the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and the Brecogen company of the brothers Luigi, Francesco and Pasquale Brescia for 12 years (the latter sentenced to 13 years for association mafia in the Aemilia trial against the ‘ndrangheta and six months for a letter of mafia threats written from prison to the mayor Luca Vecchi). The administration – with a council resolution dated May 16th, reports the Dire agency – decided not to follow up on the provision issued on August 31st 2020 (and notified to the company in March 2021) which ordered Brecogen to pay 135,000 euros to recover the costs for the demolition of the illegal works of the riding school. Which, built without planning and building authorizations, served as a meeting point between the men of the ‘Ndrangheta gang rooted in the province and unfaithful members of the police force. The reason for the Municipality’s decision? “The factual and legal conditions of the aforementioned provision have ceased to exist.”
The Council of State, in fact, accepted three appeals presented by the Brescias aimed at overturning the sentences of the TAR of Parma which in 2016 had rejected the brothers’ requests regarding the administrative acts issued by the Municipality of Reggio in 2012. These acts, which concerned the suspension of works in the offending area of via Croci for illegal development, the continuation of the related administrative proceedings and the measures resulting from the non-compliance with the order contesting the abuse, were essentially canceled by the verdict of the Council of State issued in May of 2022.
The land acquisition deed was also cancelled. The Municipality, in compliance with the judges’ ruling, among other things, proceeded to update the cadastral situation of the assets “even in the face of the inexplicable inertia maintained by the counterparty, who, having returned full jure owner of the dominion rights on the aforementioned areas, could have proceeded autonomously to the consequent land registry and registry realignments, limiting themselves to communicating this to the Municipality”. Meanwhile, with a new and separate judgment, Brecogen has asked to obtain compensation from the Municipality for alleged damages resulting from the real estate acquisition procedure for the riding school lands. The judgement, in which the administration entered an appearance, is currently pending.
