‘ndrangheta. Arrests and complaints for various crimes also in Piedmont
On the morning of 21 June 2024, the Carabinieri of the ROS and the Provincial Command of Vibo Valentia with the support in the executive phase of the soldiers of the Provincial Carabinieri Commands of Reggio Calabria, Pescara, Chieti and Turin, executed the precautionary custody order issued by the GIP of the Court of Catanzaro, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office – District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro, against 14 suspects, on the basis of the believed existence of serious evidence regarding the crimes, respectively hypothesized against them, of mafia-type association armed force, multiple murders, external participation in a mafia association, and other serious crimes, aggravated by mafia methods and purposes, such as extortion, cultivation of narcotic substances, illicit competition, disturbed freedom of auctions, robbery, weapons crimes. In particular, of the 14 suspects, 13 are subject to the measure of precautionary custody in prison and 1 is the recipient of the measure of house arrest.
The investigation, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro and conducted by the Carabinieri of the ROS and the Provincial Command of Vibo Valentia, was developed through technical activity, OCP services for “field” checks, acquisitions and analysis of collaborators’ declarations of justice, corroborated by the relevant evidence, and also with the activation of international cooperation tools, including the Joint Investigation Team with the Swiss authorities, and with the coordination of EUROJUST and that of EUROPOL. The circumstantial elements acquired have made it possible to outline (in the preliminary investigation phase which requires subsequent procedural verification in the cross-examination with the defence) the continuation, despite previous judicial measures, of the operation, in the “Preserre” area of Vibo, of the gang of ‘ndrangheta included in the “Ariola locality”, with economic-criminal projections in Piedmont, Abruzzo, Switzerland and Germany. The circumstantial gravity concerned the current structure of the association, determined as a result of a bloody clash with another group, in the alternation of criminal balances, also with rites of affiliation which took place during the state of detention, thus demonstrating the persevering ability of penetration of the ‘ndrina into prisons. In this context, the circumstantial gravity achieved, at present, on a precautionary level, through the detailed and complex investigative investigations, also concerned the triple mafia murder, committed on 25 October 2003 in Gerocarne (VV) and known as the “Mafia massacre”. Ariola”, part of a long bloody feud between rival families who competed for criminal hegemony over the territory. In the precautionary order, against the suspects, based on the measures adopted, the circumstantial gravity was considered, among other things, with reference, respectively, to multiple illicit conducts of extortion, cultivation of narcotic substances, illicit competition , disturbed freedom of auctions, robbery, weapons crimes, aggravated by mafia methods and purposes.
At the same time as the execution of the precautionary order, multiple search orders were executed against further subjects for whom involvement in the illicit events investigated was assumed, some of whom lived in other regions of the national territory (Abruzzo and Piedmont). and some also in Switzerland, proceeding for these to activate the tools of international cooperation.
