“If Francesco has to give you money, then I have to give it to you.” Thus the «friends» of Francesco Ferrara they settled the claims of employees and creditors of the “market boss”. What if intimidation did not prove effective enough, they resorted to kidnappings, punitive expeditions and beatings.
According to the investigators of the Investigation Section of the Central Operational Service (Sisco) of Turin it was a frequent practicefound as part of an operation launched in March 2023 from an excerpt of another investigation into a clandestine betting ring.
Francesco Ferrara called «Ndranga Ndranga»
In the investigation, coordinated by manager Luca Izzo, the figure of Ferrara emergedconnected, directly or indirectly, to companies involved in the sale of food, gastronomy and exhibition planning.
Already sentenced to 2 years for the diversion of assets from the bankruptcy of Ovs Retail, according to the reconstructions of the investigators, Ferrara had “frequent acquaintances with known members of the ‘Ndrangheta”. To whom he turned for “non-payment or because someone had questioned his criminal prestige”.
For this reason they nicknamed him “Ndranga Ndranga”, but his actions were surrounded by an atmosphere of silence. Many silences, only one complaint, but the investigation still led to a precautionary custody order carried out against Ferrara and 7 other accomplices (defended among others by lawyers Edoardo Carmagnola And Domenico Peila), accused, for various reasons, of extortion, kidnapping, private violence, possession and possession of a common firearm and injuries. Crimes aggravated by the mafia method. Under the magnifying glass of prosecutor Manuela Pedrotta, thousands of telephone contacts between Ferrara and mafia representatives ended up, as did the conflictual relationship with her employees and collaborators.
The kidnapping of the commercial agent
The most striking case it is the kidnapping of Paul (not his real name), a commercial agent who had requested payment from 20 thousand euros of commissions. He had turned to Salvatore Spera, known as “Uè Uè”, a 56-year-old friend who was supposed to act as a mediator.
Instead, last November 18, he lured him into a trap near his restaurant: «He led me into an alley and punched me in the mouth – the victim told the investigators -. And then I realized that Ferrara, “Toni” (Antonio Masotina, 64 years old, known as “Formaggino”) and Giacomo Lo Surdo51 years old (already involved in Minotauro and former leader of the Juventus curve). Toni put a rope around my neck saying “I’ll strangle him, I’ll kill him”».
It was Lo Surdo who stopped him, before Ferrara’s intervention: «I didn’t kill you because you’re sick, but you have to stop reporting me». In addition to the commissions, in fact, he also claimed a Fiat 500 Abarth entrusted to a body shop friend of “Ndranga” and never returned. Paolo, terrified, accepted all the requests and “to celebrate” his tormentors invited him to eat a «cut of meat from a Cerignolano». Paolo, however, could not chew due to the beatings and so Toni Masotina even asked for the “doggy bag” to take home, while Ferrara slipped 200 euros into the victim’s jacket as “compensation”.
They thought they had earned the victim’s silence, but Paolo went to the emergency room, doctors noticed the marks around his neck and notified the police. «I know that Ferrara also has acquaintances in the Municipality and that it is trying to acquire the exclusivity for the Christmas markets – he declared -. I was present when you discussed the matter with someone from the municipality. In 2022 he slapped a person in the Cioccolatò stand.”
The failure of the “Pure Gold” employee to report
He did not press chargesinstead, the employee of «Pure Gold» who, after having requested the payment of a thousand euros in arrears and having had the carabinieri intervene in di Rosta’s company, had been taken away by Ferrara’s “henchmen” and threatened with a gun (perhaps the same 9×21 found during the searches yesterday morning).
Ferrara didn’t take it well: “I need someone serious to bring it to me,” he said on the phone, “I’ll dissolve it in acid, melt it and throw it down the drain.”
Ferrara’s accomplices executed and took the unfortunate man to a meadow: “You made me unload him… otherwise I’ll dig a hole and plant him there.” In the end the victim was freed but was only beaten and forced to apologize on his knees under the threat of the weapon held by Ferrara: «He wanted to cut off my head – said the boss of the markets to a well-known multiple criminal -. And instead he scraped the floor.”
