AGRIGENTO (ITALPRESS) – Five precautionary measures in prison in Agrigento. One of the measures was notified to a 72-year-old boss, already detained and believed to be a loyalist of Matteo Messina Denaro whom he met in recent years while on the run. They were carried out by agents of the State Police, delegated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Palermo. The suspects, two of whom have already been definitively convicted of mafia association, are accused of a series of repeated conduct of extortion and illicit competition with threats or violence, crimes aggravated by the mafia method, and of having facilitated the mafia association called Cosa Nostra . Based on the investigations, conducted by the SCO, the SISCO of Palermo and the Flying Squads of Agrigento and Palermo, the “pervasive control and illicit management of agro-pastoral activities” in the Girgento area of Santa Margherita del Belice, Montevago and Sambuca was hypothesized of Sicily up to the border with Contessa Entellina, in the province of Palermo.
The suspects, making use of the undisputed intimidating force deriving from being recognized as top exponents of the Santa Margherita di Belice mafia district, would have implemented incisive control over the agro-pastoral economy of the area and over the use of agricultural funds in the hinterland belicino. In particular, several episodes were recorded in which the suspects, using the mafia method, forced the owners and managers of agricultural land to cede the availability of large areas of land to be used for illegal grazing of livestock, imposing the payment of negligible fees. which, in some cases, would not even have been paid. The control of agricultural land would have resulted, in some cases, also in a ban on carrying out collateral agricultural activities that would alter the free grazing of flocks, thus effectively imposing a stringent predominance over other people’s real estate, also functional to the maximization of profits deriving from the dairy production. “In this context – explain the investigators -, the absence of explicit threats was also sometimes recorded, with the suspects being able to impose their will by resorting to silent intimidating attitudes, which was echoed by the ability to subjugate deriving from their recognized role criminal as well as the multiple episodes of damage (fire, cutting of crops and theft of livestock) – committed by unknown persons – suffered over the years by the owners themselves who had decided, instead, to use the land for crops that would have limited the grazing of the flocks”. The investigations also made use of the declarations of some victims who opposed the “control system” of the sector, also bringing to light some episodes in which, following the threshing carried out by the owners, the foodstuffs were unduly acquired and packaged by the investigated, without paying any compensation. – photo of the State Police press office – (ITALPRESS). col4/com 04-Jun-24 15:36 .
