During the first half of 2023, organized crime in Puglia did not record any significant changes in the general reference framework. Control of the territory is confirmed as an essential element of Apulian mafia associations, as a source of growth and sustenance, ensured through extortion, theft and robberies perpetrated in some cases even by minors. The historical alliances with other criminal organizations, including foreign ones, are accompanied by a constant tendency towards the expansion of the territories controlled by the clans, even outside regional areas. Over time, Apulian organized crime has developed an aptitude for acting in relevant economic contexts, polluting the legal economy through the laundering of illicit proceeds, as widely documented in the “Levante” operation conducted by the DIA in the previous year. Among the most incisive and significant results of the constant pressure of law enforcement action by the institutions, there is certainly the increase in the number of justice collaborators, a phenomenon which mainly concerned the Bari teams. The Apulian criminal context still remains unstable also due to continuous internal rifts. In fact, in continuity with the serious episodes highlighted in the last semester, in the period in question multiple ambushes were recorded which occurred in random order in almost the entire metropolitan area of Bari, in the Foggiano area, in the province of Lecce and Taranto, confirming that the struggle for control of the territory spreads throughout the regional area.
BARI
From a criminal point of view, 4 hegemonic clans can currently be considered present in the metropolitan city of Bari, mostly corresponding to as many mafia families historically rooted in the Apulian capital, with ramifications in the province and projections also in different areas of the Region, namely: the CAPRIATI , the STRISCIUGLIO, the PARISI-PALERMITI, and the DIOMEDE-MERCANTE. The DI COSOLA clan, weakened by the death of its top member as well as by the contrasting activity of the institutions, although it is experiencing a moment of strong internal friction, would nevertheless show signs of possible attempts at reconstitution and reaffirmation. A plurality of smaller groups are subordinate to the aforementioned hegemonic clans, with limited operational autonomy and, among these, include the MISCEO, MONTANI, ANEMOLO, FIORE-RISOLI, DI COSIMO-RAFASCHIERI, LORUSSO, VELLUTO and TELEGRAFO groups. The CAPRIATI clan is historically active in the Borgo Antico of Bari as well as, through its representatives, in the Fesca neighborhoods and in the San Cataldo area and in a large portion of the province of Bari and in some centers of the BAT province. The association is mainly dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion and the management of gambling. Considering the prolonged state of detention of the historical head of the clan, several regents have joined him over time, including the last one, murdered on 21 November 2018. On 12 June 2023, the Carabinieri of Bari executed a custody order precautionary sentence in prison issued against 2 subjects belonging to the CAPRIATI clan as they were responsible, in various capacities and in complicity, for a murder committed on 29 September 2021 in the San Girolamo district of Bari, aggravated by mafia circumstances, for illegal possession and carrying of a weapon by fire, as well as multi-aggravated theft of the cars used to commit the crime. The investigation documented the interconnected criminal dynamics underlying the now full-blown and more current than ever frictions between the STRISCIUGLIO clan on the one hand, with particular reference to the structure of the San Paolo neighborhood of Bari and the PARISI-PALERMITI and CAPRIATI clans on the other , generated by the need to control the territory and exacerbated by the expansionist criminal policy implemented by the STRISCIUGLIO group, simultaneously confirming the good relations existing between the Japigia clan and the CAPRIATI.
PROVINCE OF BARI
The complex criminal dynamics that characterize the Metropolitan City of Bari inevitably reverberate on the precarious mafia balances of the province. The projections of criminal interests in the municipalities of Bari fuel the critical issues existing in the capital, generating an oscillating and persistent state of fibrillation in the entire provincial criminal context. The major criminal organizations of the Metropolitan City of Bari extend their sphere of influence in the province by using trusted representatives or by resorting to the affiliation of top managers belonging to criminal groups based in the individual municipalities. The criminal groups that refer to the CAPRIATI clan in the province of Bari are located in the municipality of Bitonto (CONTE clan and CASSANO-DI CATALDO group), in the municipality of Triggiano as well as in the municipalities of Putignano, Noci, Turi, Castellana Grotte, Monopoli, Alberobello and Conversano. Some contacts would operate in the municipality of Modugno, Giovinazzo, Terlizzi, Corato, Palo del Colle (where it seems to be subject to the hegemony of the STRISCIUGLIO clan and the presence of the CIPRIANO), Molfetta and, finally, Mola di Bari, a town that would be part of an expansionist project of the CAPRIATI clan. On 22 March 2023, the Carabinieri of Bari executed a decree to seize the assets of a person believed to be a representative of the CAPRIATI clan of Terlizzi.
The investigations made it possible to reconstruct the subject’s assets, mainly made up of assets fictitiously registered in the name of third parties and accumulated over the years with the reuse of the proceeds of illicit activities. The ablation provision concerned movable and immovable assets, current accounts and company assets, for a total value of approximately 20 million euros, all fictitiously registered in the name of individuals belonging to one’s family sphere. The STRISCIUGLIO clan represents a source of fibrillation for satellite criminal groups in the city of Bari and the surrounding municipalities. It continues to demonstrate strong expansionist aims even in the province, as in the municipality of Bitonto where it can count on a new group, in the municipality of Modugno, where it makes use of the affiliated group ROMITO and marginally in Polignano. The STRISCIUGLIO clan would also be present in Conversano and Palo del Colle, where it would have conquered the territory by taking advantage of a moment of difficulty experienced by a rival group. The PARISI – PALERMITI clan extends its illicit interests in the province of Bari through trusted contacts and connections with local criminal structures. In the municipality of Cassano delle Murge it uses the FIORE-RISOLI group; in the municipality of Gravina in Puglia and nearby towns it would make use of some affiliates to manage drug trafficking also in collaboration with Lucanian criminal organisations. Recent judicial measures confirm the presence and operation of the PARISIPALERMITI in the extortion sector also in the city of Trani. In Bitonto, the PARISI-PALERMITI clan can count on the CIPRIANO team, while in Altamura on the D’ABRAMO-SFORZA clan and the LOIUDICE clan. Investigative evidence has also documented the presence in Altamura of a joint attributable to the ANNOSCIA group, historic affiliate of the PARISI-PALERMITI clan, hegemonic in the municipality of Noicattaro, but also influential in Mola di Bari. The PARISIPALERMITI clan, through the MARTIRADONNA group , has influence not only on Mola di Bari, but also on Torre a Mare and Polignano a Mare. While in Conversano the PANARELLI group, always believed to be in contact with elements of the Japigia neighbourhood, fiefdom of the PARISI, would have passed under the protection of the STRISCIUGLIO clan.
