FOGGIA – Michele D’Alba paid “2,500 euros but then he complained because business was going badly and they lowered his bribe”. This is what on 22 February the repentant Giuseppe Francavilla, believed to be the cashier of the clan of the same name, put in the minutes before the prosecutor of the DDA, Bruna Manganelli, regarding the entrepreneur from Manfredonia to whom the Tre Fiammelle and Lavit cooperatives refer, the the first active in the global service and the second holder of the 170 million “lavanolo” contract (mattresses and linens) for the Apulian local health authorities. Both received an anti-mafia ban from the prefecture of Foggia, precisely because of the entrepreneur’s believed closeness to organized crime.
The excerpt from Francavilla’s report (166 pages which mainly talk about bloody events) was filed in the file closed in April against D’Alba for aiding and abetting the mafia. The entrepreneur is accused of having denied having paid extortion to the Moretti clan, despite his name being found on the “extortion list” of organized crime in Foggia and despite the wiretaps which explicitly mention the extortion requests against he. For this reason the DDA requested the indictment.
The words of the repentant support the accusatory approach, which started from the interceptions of the Foggia Flying Squad in the Decima Azione investigation. «I met him in 2013 and I knew he paid – Francavilla wrote about Moretti -. He is included in the Morettis’ three-month list. I wanted to start a business with him to open an industrial laundry. At the time he owned the Tre Fiammelle cleaning company. D’Alba told me it was a great idea but it would take some time. Then I was arrested for the extortion at the Serano bar and when I came out I learned that he had done the laundry.” The extortion carried out by the Morettis lasted, again according to the repentant, “until 2018”. How can you say that?, the prosecutor asks him. «Because the money for the three months arrived».
The DDA also asked the repentant about Don Uva, the health facility taken over by a consortium of entrepreneurs of which (at the time) D’Alba was also part. «He was a partner… he had entered into a partnership with Telesforo if I’m not mistaken. They took Don Uva and Moretti interfaced with us, with me, to say: “We have to extort Telesforo”, and I told him: “Forget it because as soon as you get close he will get you arrested”. He says: “No, we have to do it”. “And do it.” And then they were reported, if I’m not mistaken, and immediately afterwards we were arrested.”
Francavilla’s reference is probably to Ernesto Gatta and Francesco Tizzano, alleged affiliates of the Morettis, arrested and already sentenced (10 and 14 years) for an extortion attempt on the Rssa «Il Sorriso» which was promptly reported. Conversely, D’Alba is accused of not wanting to name the two alleged affiliates at the end of October 2017, when he showed up at the police station in Foggia to report generic extortion requests made to his family members, explaining however that he had never paid.
In April 2020, the entrepreneur from Manfredonia was also heard (already under investigation) by prosecutor Manganelli, and he slightly modified his version probably because in the meantime the wiretaps contained in the Decima Action order had emerged. D’Alba has in fact admitted the extortion requests made by Gatta and Tizzano, who he said met in a bar in Foggia, but “I can assure you that I have not paid any sum of money”. Last week Lavit asked the Bari Prevention Court to be able to access judicial control, a form of soft commissioner. But both the DDA and the Prefecture opposed it, highlighting the permanence of the risk of contiguity with the clans and the fact that the cooperative is in fact still in the hands of the D’Alba family.
