It is the territory where they have had free reign for thirty years. In the division of the Reggio area into 13 districts, signed by the bosses Giorgio Di Stefano and Pasquale Condello at the end of the second ‘Ndrangheta war in the 1990s, the Araniti were given the municipality of Sambatello. We are north of the capital, a few kilometers from Villa San Giovanni and Catona. Mimì Araniti, known as the Duke, brother of the clan leader Santo (at 41 bis since 2010), believed himself to be the undisputed master of the area, a fiefdom where to weave the web of criminal power it was necessary to put the pawns in the right places. And fit the pieces together perfectly. Starting from those in politics. According to the investigators of the DDA of Reggio Calabria it was a mechanism for mafia infiltration of the well-oiled and bipartisan electoral process. So yesterday the restrictive measures began.
The investigation, called Ducale, is signed by the Prosecutor Giuseppe Bombardieri, by the deputies Stefano Musolino and Lucio Ignazitto and by the prosecutor Salvatore Rossello. The elections that came under the microscope are the municipal ones of 2020, the regional ones and the early ones of 2021 following the death of President Santelli. A total of 14 measures were ordered by the investigating judge: 7 suspects in prison, 4 under house arrest and 3 with the obligation to report to the judicial police. The alleged crimes: mafia-type association, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, electoral crimes, corruption for an act contrary to official duties.
From the cauldron uncovered by the investigators, three prestigious politicians emerge: Ciccio Neri, FdI regional group leader, Francesco Sera (Pd), municipal councilor of Reggio and above all the dem mayor Peppe Falcomatà, who recently returned to the saddle of Palazzo San Giorgio. Suspended since 2021, the Supreme Court returned his armband to him six months ago, temporarily lost under the Severino law, after his conviction in the “Miramare” trial. In recent months he has also kept a low profile during the election campaign. All that is remembered of him is his unconditional support for the Strait Bridge. Now he has to face more legal troubles. For the DDA, “the person in charge of political relations on behalf of the clan” Daniel Barillà, son-in-law of the “duke”, would have been one of its “great voters”, not only in Sambatello but also in Gallico. However, the mayor was saved from the request for a precautionary measure. «The evidence of the psychological element on the basis of which he stipulated the electoral pact with Barillà has not yet reached the maturity necessary to justify, for him too, the precautionary request». Falcomatà’s awareness of having to deal with the clan’s man cannot therefore be proven.
The DDA had instead requested the arrest of Neri and Sera, which was not validated by the investigating judge. The evidential framework against them is heavier. In particular, Barillà allegedly altered – with the complicity of compliant scrutineers – the operations by obtaining the ballots of citizens unable to vote and expressing, in their place, the preference in favor of Neri and Sera. A “favor” which, according to the DDA, would have allowed Barillà to obtain appointments in public bodies as an external professional from the same candidates.
