In the city of Taranto “various criminal groups coexist and divide areas and neighborhoods of the city according to criteria of autonomy and criminal hegemony although there are no shortage of episodes of conflict over territorial disputes. In the province of Taranto there are several criminal groups that exercise their influence in different municipalities, sometimes even in opposition to each other”. This is what you can read in the Report to Parliament from the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate relating to the January-June 2023 semester.
This is the passage referring to Taranto and its province: «On 3 May 2023, a provision issued by the Court of Lecce was executed, on the proposal of the Director of the DIA, which ordered, in Greece and Bulgaria, the freezing of the assets held by a known criminal from Taranto. Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council no. has been implemented by the Judicial Authority. 1805/2018 concerning judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU which provides for the freezing and confiscation of assets and proceeds of crime. The activity originated from the patrimonial and financial investigations delegated by the Judicial Authority and merged into a proposed patrimonial prevention measure which on 24 October 2019 led to the seizure of 2 villas, 1 house, 8 warehouses and 1 agricultural land located in Taranto, Castellaneta Marina and Martina Franca, company shares, 5 company compendiums operating in the mussel and seafood sector in general, numerous motor vehicles and motorcycles, for a value of over 5 million euros, subjected to subsequent 1st degree confiscation on 20 January 2022. The further investigations delegated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Lecce and aimed at attacking the illicit assets accumulated in foreign territory, including the activation of the Greek and Bulgarian collateral bodies, have made it possible to ascertain the existence of further investments, illicit origin, in some companies operating abroad. The outcome of the further checks generated a further asset prevention measure which has interested in shareholdings and company summaries of companies in Bulgaria and Greece, operating both in the wholesale trade of fish products, both in the international transport sector for a total estimated value of over 2 million euros”.
It is remembered that «on 19 January 2023, in Taranto and Statte, as part of the “Hispanic express” operation, the Carabinieri carried out a precautionary measure against 8 subjects held responsible for complicity in the detention and dealing of drugs. The criminal group would have been involved in the importation, mainly from Spain, of large quantities of narcotics, such as hashish and marijuana, and in retail dealing in the city of Taranto. On 27 March 2023, in Sava, as part of the “Caronte” operation, the Carabinieri carried out a precautionary measure against 18 people, held responsible, in various capacities, for the crimes of trafficking, possession and dealing of narcotics, detention illegal weapons and ammunition. On 9 March 2023, in Massafra, as part of the “Hybris” operation, the Carabinieri of Gioia Tauro (RC) carried out a precautionary custody order in prison against various subjects including a well-known criminal from Massafra, already convicted of mafia-type association and with police prejudice for attempted voluntary homicide, extortion, personal injury, robbery, illegal possession of weapons, and now under investigation for the crimes of extortion and robbery, in complicity and aggravated because committed by a person belonging to a mafia-type association. On 8 May 2023, in Taranto, the Port Authority executed a preventive seizure order aimed at the confiscation of some companies found to be involved in illicit trafficking of waste which they took from the port of Taranto, illegally dumping it in the Massafra area. On 14 June 2023, in Taranto, the “Friends for leather” operation was carried out, as part of which the Carabinieri carried out a precautionary measure and at the same time a preventive and equivalent seizure decree against 5 accused subjects, for various reasons, of illicit waste trafficking and other environmental crimes. On 20 June 2023, the State Police of Taranto carried out a precautionary measure against 5 subjects accused, in various capacities, of the crimes of murder and attempted extortion against a subject, of the attempted murder of another subject and of extortion against a merchant, as well as related violations of the weapons law.”
But it is also significant another passage of the Reportthe one where we read that «over time, the coastal area of the province of Matera has suffered the criminal influence of Taranto groups which, along the Ionian coast, have constituted a criminal axis with native groups and Calabrian clans». In short, it emerges a capacity for expansion of the groups of the Taranto area outside the specifically local context.
