REGGIO CALABRIA In the latest investigation by the Anti-Mafia District of Reggio Calabria, culminating in the arrest of 11 people (7 in prison and 4 under house arrest) it popped out a name widely known in judicial news and those in the area of Reggio Calabria. It’s about Antonino Princi (born 1971) known as the “Sheriff”achieved by a precautionary custody order in prison.
His name connects to that of the late boss Giuseppe Greco and to the serious episodes dating back to 2016, when the two were protagonists of a feud – brief – which shook the territory of Calanna, in the hamlet of Sambatello, in Reggino: first the attempted murder of the “Sheriff” which took place on 9 February, then, on 3 April 2016, the attempted murder of Greco and the murder of Domenico Polimeni.
After the investigative activity and the trial phase, according to the preliminary hearing judge there was an episode more emblematic than others, namely that «Antonino Princi, although the victim of this murderous ambush, did not file any complaint for the serious incident suffered and did not provide indications for identifying the authors of the illicit conduct…”. In fact, from the investigations it emerged that in those territories, in fact, if a feud broke out within the hegemonic mafia family right in the Calanna area, resulting from Antonino Princi’s rise to criminal power. As reconstructed, in fact, taking advantage of Giuseppe Greco’s absence from Calabria, he had tried to gain control of the illicit activities insistent in the Calanno area. In the order, the investigating judge reports the results of the “Kalanè” investigation from which it emerged that the deceased Peppe Greco, «warning that he had been removed from the functions of top of the criminal clan inherited from his father “Don Ciccio”, historic boss of Calanna, had organised, with the help of some of his associates, the elimination of the new regent of the gang, without however succeeding”. And so, as retaliation, the new group born around the figure of the “Sheriff” had organized the raid in the Sotira district of Sambatello, during which Polimeni was killed, considered Greco’s factotum who, just as happened with the “rival” , he managed to save himself.
«Eh… but me too! You understand right?!! One by one! We are one by one for now!». This is the tenor of a conversation, captured after the ambush of 3 April 2016, in which Greco himself “attributed responsibility to Princi’s group”, writes the investigating judge and “at the same time specified that the mafia war had just begun”. And again, regretful for having failed in the big shot, he said again: «(…) I made a mistake! I made a mistake!”. As the investigating judge still reports in the order, continuing his tirade against Princi and his group, Greco appeared particularly angry, aware that the need to kill him arose from the desire of his rivals to definitively oust him from the top roles of the local ndrangheta. «No… he says… when we chase him we are in charge in all places, do you understand? He says… his father isn’t here… his grandchildren are “fathers”…». And he adds: «Eh… miserable… miserable traitor…».
With a sentence of 10 June 2020 – which has become irrevocable – the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Reggio Calabria rejected the appeal of the Attorney General against the acquittal of Greco’s co-defendants while the latter died in 2018. In the body of that motivation the judges however reiterated the mafia motive of the dramatists episodes that had shaken the Calanna community in 2016 and, at the same time, outlined the role acquired in that context by Princi himself. Furthermore, in the order, the investigating judge also reports that, following the issuing of the precautionary custody order of 1 August 2016, Princi went into hiding, making himself untraceable for more than 6 months. Only on 25 February 2017 did the Carabinieri manage to find him in a house in the Pantano district of Cardeto and protected by Saverio Arfuso, a subject “intranous to the Serraino gang” writes the investigating judge, a sign of how the “Sheriff” could continue to live in the area Reggio Emilia, making use of a secure and consolidated network of support and silence, thanks to its criminal prestige.
To provide important elements and investigative insights it was the justice collaborator Mario Chindemiaccording to which the Araniti gang had shown great irritation at the incident for two reasons: first because the choice of the place where Greco had made an attempt on the life of his rival, a territory under their jurisdiction, had been censored, secondly because the gang had formed an alliance with Princi, «preferred to Greco because he was younger and more dynamic in managing the affairs shared between the two neighboring “locals”», the investigating judge notes in the order. «(…) Pasquale told me that the Aranites didn’t take it so well because if Peppe was going to want to shoot Nino Princi if he had to do it on Calanna», Chindemi had reported. «(…) the Araniti were interested in having a young person, I mean… and different from Peppe Greco (…) in practice they wanted to bring Nino Princi forward…». Furthermore, according to the repentant, it had been easier for the Araniti to reach an agreement with Princi for the division of the proceeds from the Sambatello landfill since Peppe Greco had instead demanded a 50% share, while with the “Sheriff” « a downward mediation had been carried out, with the possibility for Princi himself and some of his men to work inside the plant”. ([email protected])
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