REGGIO CALABRIA «We live in a region where people die more easily than others. This is a breach of the Constitution and the principles that allow us to be a unitary country.” The beginning of it is very harsh Stefano Musolinodeputy prosecutor of Reggio Calabria and general secretary of the democratic judiciary, who spoke during the event organized by Courier of Calabria “Let’s play early” in collaboration with the Mediterranean University. Today the panel “Neoplasms, the rules to follow and the myths to dispel” is scheduled.
Mafia interference and the purification sector
In Calabria the presence of a poor culture of respect for the environment is evident. Many of the recent investigations have revealed, in this sense, numerous episodes of illicit waste disposal, pollution of land and waterways. «Our office is acting precisely in this sector, we have also conducted rather recent investigations into pollution, in particular of some stream beds and more generally into methods of spilling, especially liquids into the sea» says Musolino to our microphones. «We have a general problem which does not only concern criminal matters, but structural problems linked to the capacity of our water and wastewater network, of the sewer system so to speak, to contain and dispose of everything that the city produces. There are some planned interventions which unfortunately do not allow criminal intervention». There has been and still is an underestimation of the problem linked to the bad and incorrect disposal of waste, the pollution of waterways and the harmful effect on the environment. It almost feels like facing a second-class crime. «It is. There is a serious underestimation of the problems related to pollution and the effects that pollution has on the quality of our lives. We often delude ourselves that the currents, the strait and the winds solve all the problems that man creates, in reality this is not always the case and we should take much more care of the quality of our environment”, claims Musolino.
The interests of crime and the Port of Gioia Tauro
There have been years during which in Calabria, in the two districts that characterize it, many judicial police operations and many operations to combat organized crime were revealed and implemented. What is the state of health of organized crime in the province of Reggio Calabria? «It seems to me that especially the center of the city, the organized community is in great pain. The series of operations that my office managed to carry out, thanks to the contribution of all the deputies, gave very important results. On the Jonica and Tirenica there has been a clear shift in the interests of organized crime towards the drug trafficking sector» says the deputy prosecutor. The mob’s interest in drug trafficking undermines the common perception of the presence or absence of organized crime in Reggio Calabria. “Certain, the presence of the ‘ndrangheta was a little less evident because the important gangs are totally dedicated to drug trafficking thanks to which they manage to obtain extraordinary profits». The province of Reggio Calabria has and offers the Region the largest logistics infrastructure which is the Port of Gioia Tauro. An infrastructure which paradoxically, also in this case, the ‘Ndrangheta has managed to fully grasp its potential. «Very true, though we cannot say that since the ‘ndrangheta of drug traffickers has infiltrated the port structures this should favor the closure of the port. It is necessary to act in a repressive and preventive manner in order to defuse this action. The port is a treasure of our province that must absolutely be valorised and its great potential must be protected but within this enhancement we need the action of the police and the judiciary.” For Musolino, the tentacles stretched out by the mob over the Port cannot represent a brake on investments. «What we need to fight the ‘ndrangheta are investments, the economy and the ability to manage resources».
The state of health of civil society
What is the state of health of civil society in Reggio? «In my opinion we have made some progress, we had many entrepreneurs who started collaboratingbut I think what’s missing is a real awareness on the part of the State of the needs that concern this territory. We still have an absolutely inadequate number of law enforcement personnel compared to the phenomenon we have to face. In law enforcement it’s really a problem. We we must select the fronts on which to intervene because we do not have adequate resources to be able to address all the issues that deserve to be addressed». What does this entail? «A young man without a job turns to crime. Drug trafficking is a sector in which it is still possible today to offer an easy profit to a boy who has no success in the area and which becomes an increasingly convincing tool of attraction.”
Justice reform and the separation of careers
Limited staffing, budget limits and perhaps a cut in wiretapping. Although there are many emergencies in the justice sector, the attention – including in the media – is entirely focused on the discussions on separation of careers. «That is damage that is part of an entire reform of the constitutional systems that concerns the premiership, a concentration of powers, in my opinion excessive, in the hands of a single person, together with the reform of the separation of careers which in reality is a reform of justice which weakens the ability of the judiciary to carry out its role of guarantee”, says Musolino. What a gloss: «If we add to this the reform on regional autonomies, we have a picture in which the regions of the South – in particular Calabria – will increasingly suffer negative and deleterious effects of reforms that do not take care of the protection of the weakest» .
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