Rocco Moretti junior, son of Pasquale and nephew of Rocco at the top of the “Società” clan of the same name, accuses in the courtroom the repentant Carlo Verderosa of having set a trap for him, leaving some pieces of paper in his house which he then had the Flying Squad find the following day containing lists of salaries paid to affiliates, victims of extortion and extorted sums, and drug dealers who are points of reference for the mafia battery. The spontaneous declarations of the 27-year-old made via videoconference from prison also marked the hearing in the Court in Foggia of the “Game over” trial of 19 defendants accused in various capacities of trafficking and dealing of cocaine aggravated by the mafia. The investigation which resulted in the blitz of 24 July 2023 with 82 arrests and which includes 85 defendants in 4 trial sections, concerns the monopoly on the sale of cocaine in the city imposed on wholesalers and drug dealers by the three clans of the “Society” (the Sinesi/Francavilla, the rivals Moretti/Pellegrino/Lanza who also co-opted the Trisciuoglio/Tolonese family in the deal) who purchased the drugs in Cerignola for less than 40 euros per gram, and sold them to the Foggia pushers at 55/60 euros. They sold – say the DDA and the Carabinieri – 10 kilos of narcotics per month equal to 50 thousand doses, with a profit of over 200 thousand euros which fed the common fund wanted by the clans to pay monthly payments to affiliates, support the families of detained associates, purchase other drugs . The disputed facts range from 2017 onwards.
The decisive finding For the third stage hearing in the courtroom connected by videoconference from a secret location, 42-year-old Carlo Verderosa from Foggia (accused in the abbreviated trial of 63 people with a request for a 3-year sentence for trafficking and drug dealing) repented on 19 December 2019 when he confessed to ‘having been part of the Moretti clan for the last 8 years. The history of the trial says that a fundamental confirmation of the justice collaborator’s story occurred on the same day of his repentance: the flying squad searched the house of Rocco Moretti junior, arrested him for the possession of over a hectare of cocaine (already convicted for that affair) ; and found 3 handwritten lists essential for reconstructing the history and affairs of the Company: lists of paid affiliates, victims of racketeering, names of pushers.
The Moretti scion Moretti junior, who together with his grandfather Rocco senior is one of the 19 defendants on trial, instead designed another scenario. According to the criminal, Verderosa showed up at his house on 18 December 2019, leaving him some papers, saying that they were invitations for a family party, asking him to keep them because he would collect them later; the following day, however, Verderosa had his house searched by the Flying Squad who seized the 3 lists; the prisoner has asked the judges to order a handwriting examination which would demonstrate that his handwriting is not his.
The system and the boss Verderosa, responding to the questions and objections of the lawyer Tagliaferri, defender of Rocco Moretti senior and the lawyer Claudio Caira, lawyer of Antonio Salvatore, spoke about the 2 defendants and the “system” wanted by the clans to have a monopoly on the sale of cocaine. The repentant said he had met Rocco Moretti senior twice in prison (the accusation accuses the 73 year old boss of having promoted the agreement with the rivals of the Sinesi/Francavilla clan to manage the cocaine deal); that I had never frequented him outside; that through Pasquale Moretti (not accused) father and son paid the sums of 10 thousand euros each with which the various mafiosi who joined the system financed the first purchases of cocaine; explained that the agreement between the clans broke down in October 2015 following the attempted murder of Vito Bruno Lanza, at the top of the Moretti/Pellegrino/Lanza battery, which started a new war with the rivals Sinesi/Francavilla.
He feared being killed Verderosa reiterated that he regretted it in December 2019, two months after being freed, because he feared being killed by his own clan; of having been detained from January 2016 to October 2019 following his arrest and conviction for weapons charges in the «Ripristino» blitz against the Moretti clan. Lawyer Caira challenged him that in three reports of interrogations given during the investigations, Verderosa said he had known little about the Company’s affairs from 2016 until his repentance precisely because he was detained for most of the period. From a defensive perspective, based on the declarations of the Justice collaborator whose reliability is also disputed, the “system” wanted by the clans to manage the cocaine monopoly would have worked at most from 2012 to 2015, while the crimes contested they range from 2017 onwards. The DDA replies on the basis of the declarations of Verderosa and other repentants that the “system” also worked in the years under dispute when each clan still had a group of drug dealers under it which it required to supply itself with cocaine. Next hearing at the end of June.
