At the first light of dawn, the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Messina, with the collaboration of the Penitentiary Police, carried out a vast anti-drug operation which involved Sicily, Calabria, and other national and international locations. The authorities arrested 112 people (85 in prison and 27 under house arrest, including 3 under the management of the Sicily Regional Investigation Unit of the Penitentiary Police), accused of a series of crimes, including criminal association aimed at the possession, trafficking, cultivation and sale of narcotics, self-laundering, fraudulent transfer of valuables, illegal possession of weapons, extortion and other crimes. At the same time, assets with a total value of over 4 million euros were seized.
The precautionary measures, issued by the GIP of the Court of Messina at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office, derive from three separate investigations conducted by the Carabinieri of the Messina Sud and Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto Companies, under the coordination of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) of Messina. The investigations were disjointed various criminal organizations operating in drug trafficking in Messina, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, in the Nebroidean and Tyrrhenian areas of the province, with connections to Calabrian criminal structures and subjects active in Campania, Lombardy and abroad.
For the line of investigation concerning Messina, the order concerns 49 precautionary measures, of which 42 in prison and 7 under house arrest.
The names of those arrested
In jail
- Giuseppe Anzaloneknown as Peppe Monster-Tatoo, 38 years old, Messina
- Alex Arrigo31 years old, Messina
- Antonio Astoneknown as the Bolognese, 37 years old, Messina
- Luca Michael Gabriel Astone24 years old, born in Bentivoglio, resident in Messina
- Giuseppe Astuto32 years old, Messina
- Giuseppe Bellamacina52 years old, Messina
- Fabio Bellantoni43 years old, Messina
- Danilo Lorenzo Calderone25 years old, Messina
- Gioacchino Cananzi49 years old, from Rosarno
- Giovanni Cannistrà43 years old, Fiumedinisi
- Claudio Caporlingua35 years old, Messina
- Andrea Centorrino27 years old, Messina
- Angelo Conti34 years old, Messina
- Gennaro Conti37 years old, Messina
- Salvatore Costa56 years old, Messina
- Giuseppe Costanzo Zammataro47 years old, Tortorici
- Giovambattista Cuscinàknown as Coccolo, 45 years old, Messina
- Valentina Demarco32 years old, Messina
- Simone Di Bella39 years old, Messina
- Antonino Falcone51 years old, Messina
- Sebastiano Galati Massaro53 years old, Tortorici
- Giuseppe Gangemi35 years old, Messina
- Bruno Giorgi29 years old, Locri
- Paolo Grasso34 years old, Messina
- Giuseppe Lo Cascioknown as little car, 38 years old, Messina
- Giuseppe Maressaknown as Pippo Ciabatta, 64 years old, Messina
- Antonino Mastrolembo Barna57 years old, Brolo
- Philip Messina52 years old, Messina
- Domenico Milaneseknown as Mimmo the Milanese, 47 years old, Messina
- Grazia Minutoliknown as aunt Graziella, 62 years old, born in Laureana di Borbello (RC), resident in Messina
- Vincenzo Muniknown as jamaica, 42 years old, Messina
- Marcello Nunnari37 years old, Messina
- Gaetano Penninoknown as Emanuele, 39 years old, Messina
- Giovanni Rizzoknown as mu-mu, 37 years old, Messina
- Antonino Scirone30 years old, Messina
- Antoninus Settimo38 years old, Messina
- Paul the Seventhknown as Paulu u nanu, 41 years old, Messina
- Francesco Spadaroknown as Ciccio, 45 years old, Messina
- Antonino Strangio42 years old, Locri, resident in Bovalino
- Achraf Taibknown as Alex, 34 years old, born in Morocco, resident in Trezzano sul Naviglio (MI)
- Gianluca Torrini39 years old, Messina
- Gianluca Vento27 years old, Messina
House arrest for
- Rosario Abate37 years old, Messina
- Maria Cacopardo69 years old, Messina
- Stefania Galletta38 years old, Messina
- Maurizio Papale55 years old, Messina
- Francesco Pelle69 years old, San Luca (RC)
- Domenico Romano25 years old
- Giada Sabbatini27 years old, Messina
Asset seizures
In addition to the arrests, the operation led to seizure of assets worth more than 4 million euroshitting the finances of criminal organizations hard.
