June 19, 2024, 1.50pm
3 min read
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CATANIA – There was so much cocaine circulating between Calabria and Catania that two Calabrians had moved to the Etna city to personally manage traffic. It is one of the things that emerges from Operation Devozione, which on the morning of Wednesday 19 June brought 13 people to prison, with another 16 resulting from a notice of conclusion of the investigations.
The operation of the Catania Flying Squad, supported by the mobile forces of Reggio Calabria and Syracuse and by men of the SCO, made it possible to attack a drug trafficking channel in southern Italy, with the now consolidated collaboration between the Calabrians and Catania in cocaine trafficking. A total of 11 kilos of cocaine were seized, with more than 20 delivery trips documented.
“Devotion”, the story of the investigation
The police investigations started from Carmelo Scilio from Catania, considered one of the most notorious cocaine traffickers in the Sicilian capital. In June 2020 Scilio was under house arrest but continued to manage drug movements from his home.
The investigators thus manage to discover Scilio’s suppliers, before he was arrested again for another proceeding in July 2020. Cocaine arrived in Sicily thanks above all to Bruno Cidoni and Antonio Pezzano. Cidoni, from Calabria, guaranteed the connection with cocaine wholesalers in Calabria.
The devotion of the Calabrians for the Madonna of Polsi, whose sanctuary is located in Aspromonte, was the inspiration that gave its name to the entire investigation. In fact, Cidoni had an image of the Madonna di Polsi on his cell phone, and was intercepted while he asked his collaborators if they had a rosary with them.
Drug trafficking in Catania
Cocaine trafficking in Catania was so advantageous for Cidoni who had moved to the Etna capital to personally manage the movement of drugs, storage, cutting and delivery to his various clients from Catania, some of whom were considered close to the clans.
Police cameras and microphones documented 20 movements of cocaine from Calabria to Catania, according to a method that involved the provision of the Calabrian representative of the organization Pasquale Zangari, the journey in a car equipped with hidden compartments with Francesco Sedici from Catania acting as courier, then the delivery and storage in the house of Cidoni, in San Giovanni Galermo.
Here the drugs were stored, cut and sent to the retail trade, or in the drug dealing squares of Catania. During the entire operation the police seized eleven kilos of drugs, with two seizures of cocaine of approximately 5 kilos each. Furthermore, 90,300 euros in cash were found walled up in Cidoni’s house.
After the arrest of Francesco Sedici, in November 2020drug trafficking changed methods: the cocaine arrived on trucks and after an exchange in a car park it was stored in an apartment in the San Giorgio district, from which it then took its way to the drug dealing squares.
“Very lucrative traffic”
Commenting on Operation Devotion during a press conference is the Police Commissioner of Catania Giuseppe Bellassai: “This is a very important operation, because it documents the contiguous relationships between Calabrian and Catania crime in a very lucrative sector such as drug trafficking.”
Bellassai recalls during the press conference also the sentence with which some members of the Cappello clan were convicted of cocaine trafficking on Tuesday 18 June: “Even in that case it concerns drug trafficking, and consolidated connections from Calabrian and Catania crime”.
The names
They were reached by order of pre-trial detention in prison:
– Giuseppe Addamo, born in 1979;
– Bruno Cidoni, born in 1974;
– Luigi Danilo Garozzo, born in 1993;
– Gino Gueli, born in 1989;
– Francesco Mannino, born in 1987;
– Antonio Pezzano, born in 1992;
– Angelo Ribera, born in 1987;
– Carmelo Scilio, born in 1974;
– Francesco Sedici, born in 1971;
– Pietro Sedici, born in 1990;
– Salvatore Torrisi, born in 1963;
– Santo Vitale, born in 1964;
– Pasquale Zangari, born in 1969.
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Published on
June 19, 2024, 1.50pm
