The business center was Orta Nova, in the province of Foggia, where the Gaeta clan has long been operational. But the group’s activity also expanded to the provinces of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Bari, Teramo and Chieti. An alleged criminal organization was dismantled today during an operation by the Bari Financial Police which resulted in the execution of 31 precautionary measures issued by the Bari investigating judge Rosa Caramia at the request of the anti-mafia district prosecutor’s office: 29 arrests (15 in prison, 14 in house arrest) and two residence obligations.
In addition to the restrictive measures, the seizure of assets worth over 2 million was also ordered. According to investigators, the alleged association had a “high organizational capacity”, a “significant availability of financial and instrumental means”, as well as having a “common fund and real ‘operational accounting'”, as the finance department writes in a press release. The suspects are charged with the crimes of association for the purpose of drug trafficking, as well as the production, trafficking and illicit possession of drugs. Among those arrested Andrea Gaeta53 year old nephew of the Orta Nova boss Francis and already charged with attempted murder, Michele And Mariano Scuccimarra (61 and 33 years old) e Michele Aghilar (40 years old), the main suspects.
The investigations, which began in May 2019 as a follow-up to another investigation into a criminal group from old Bari, are
were coordinated by the DDA.
The organization would have supplied drugs, in particular cocaine and hashish, to various squares in Puglia and Abruzzo, using “encrypted and closed-circuit communication tools – writes the finance department -, camouflaging the illicit activities in structures used for
commercial” and using “in conversations there was suggestive language: with ‘1p’ the suspects indicated a 100-gram block of drugs, with ‘one’ a case of around 30 kilos”.
28 agricultural lands, 7 apartments, 900 thousand euros in cash, life insurance policies, current accounts and 2 cars were seized from the suspects. The investigations made it possible to seize, over time, 150 kilos of hashish and 200 thousand euros in cash.
“The supply of narcotics – underlined during a press conference the coordinator of the DDA, Francis
Giannella – it took place from Foggia, while the sorting of the consignments was distributed throughout the various territorial areas
surrounding”. “The investigation – added Giannella – it started as an excerpt from another investigative activity on a clan from the old city of Bari, whose main supplier was a man from Andria”, which in turn was supplied by Orta Nova. The Gaeta clan is linked to the Moretti-Pellegrino clan of the Foggia Society.
