Among the ‘ndrangheta clubs in the Como area, under observation by the anti-mafia, there are also those in Erba and Canzo. In recent years the tension over the control of drug dealing between the two criminal groups has increased so much that a mafia war in Lombardy came close.
There are boundaries, although not visible, well drawn between the various criminal organizations in Lombardy. They are used to divide up the drug dealing areas and manage them illicit trafficking of narcotic substances. Especially if the protagonists of the illicit market are locals of ‘Ndrangheta rivals. Rules and agreements are well established in the latest operation of the SCO (Central Operational Service) and the Como Flying Squad, which led to the arrest of 30 people in the Como area this month. And in this province the ‘Ndrangheta has been a permanent presence for years.
Between locals of ‘Ndrangheta in the Como area, under the anti-mafia’s observations there are also those of Grass And I sing. Here the boundary that delimits the competence of drug dealing has been identified in Segrino lakea small body of water in the municipality of Eupilio: before the lake (coming from Como) the pushers depend on the ‘Ndrangheta supporters of Erba, then on those of Canzo.
Who are the protagonists? In Canzo the local is in the hands of Luigi Vona whose loyalists included Vincenzo Milazzo, a 34-year-old now in prison capable of managing 200 drug deliveries a day for years. The leaders of the Erba local are instead Michele and Pasquale Oppedisano (father and son) ed Edmund Como.
Road accident in the Como area, motorcyclist collides with a van: he dies instantly
The pact between the two rival groups for drug trafficking
At the beginning neither of the two rival groups had ever been willing to cede “shares” of their drug market: this means that each acted independently until in 2020 when Erba’s representatives proposed an agreement for dealing which led to raise risk and tensions between the two rival groups.
It was March 1st 2020 when – as emerged from a call from Milazzo, intercepted by investigators – the latter reported having participated in a summit with some members of the local ‘ndrangheta of Erba to “regulate the dealing of narcotic substances at territorial, during which the Oppedisanos had proposed a plan to divide the territory in Milazzo”, as stated in the documents of the Prosecutor’s Office. That is: the ‘Ndrangheta leaders of Erba wanted to contest the entire area. In an intercepted call, Milazzo explains the plan they proposed to him:
That no one from here can take stuff from outside anymore… they all have to go to one and just take it… I have to manage everything and everyone… so the area is ours… They told them that… they told me that I, everyone must turn to me, if they don’t turn to me I won’t… it’s just that we had a moment of… because they would like me not to touch anything at all… I said oh it’s not that I’m old I’m 34… I still feel like doing it …ic*** my…eh they make me and if something happens to you who can we take who can take you…who can take take your place…there isn’t anyone around who can take your place what you know how to do, no one can do, therefore, you have the obligation to pay attention to everything… you don’t have to… their customers will also go through it, they will go through everything, lawyers, doctors, restaurants everything that is in tour.
However, Milazzo and Vona did not agree to compromise with their neighbor local: both agreed that everyone should continue on their own path. In an intercept, Milazzo had summarized the conversation he had with his “boss” Vona as follows: “I told him what the fuck we’re going to do with them… they don’t even know how to work… they have to have their food ready, instead of being them for us we have to be us for them… but we’re joking“.
Therefore, on 5 March 2020 Vincenzo Milazzo managed to convince Luigi Vona to reject the Oppedisanos’ proposal: the two decided to remove themselves from the “drug trafficking” deal because they were not willing – “after 7 years of hard work” – to sell shares of their slice of the drug market in Lombardy. This allowed them to maintain a monopoly on the territory near Lake Segrino.
A few days later however, i.e. on 8 March of the same year, Michele Oppedisano, dissatisfied with Vona’s rejection of the agreement, reopened the discussion on competences, focusing the issue on the territories to the south and north of Lake Segrino. And in the end an agreement was made. During this umpteenth meeting, Milazzo confirmed to Pasquale Oppedisano that he “they would be supplied with cocaine by them at a reasonable priceand Erba’s family would have participated in the related profits deriving from subsequent sales”. However, Milazzo had always clarified that it was Vona who decided: “What he says I do too“.
The tension between the two organizations and the risk of war
Even if there was an agreement in the end, tensions have never been lacking. During these last meetings it would have been Michele Oppedisano who clarified to the Milazzo and Vona duo that: “So we remain that you don’t set foot in Erba… you get to Segrino because we are in Erba“. After this discussion Milazzo would have started walking armed “having fear of demonstrative or retaliatory actions by the opposing faction“, as the Court documents explain.
Milazzo responded in heated tones to the rival group from Erba: “I put what you say in my pocket, I listen to what Luigi tells me (i.e. Vona, ed.)…I have cultivated for seven years, come and give the rest of you?“. Then he reported in a call – again intercepted – the conversation he had with Michele Oppedisano:
I looked at him and then I said to him, let’s do something dear Michele, with all due respect I told him she has an age… and I have mine, but in the square, with all due respect, there are me and Raimondo (i.e. Edmond Como ) as far as I understand from you because your son (i.e. Pasquale Oppedisano) is at home under the covers in the evening… if I’m not mistaken… do you want 50 percent? Pasquale gets in the car with me from tonight, I’ll be out and about until seven in the morning, or does he not want to get in the car with me? What are 200 customers to do, 100 him and 100 me, but I have to stay around until seven.
And again, reporting a conversation with Raimondo: “I told him Raimondo, these guns again…keep them in your pocket because you shoot, that other one shoots…”. At this point in the discussions between the rival groups, the danger of possible retaliation on the part of the local of Erba towards Vincenzo Milazzo was high. So much so that there was talk of a possible war. However, Luigi Vona had a “mitigating” role and wanted to avoid a clash between the two factions. In the end – as the Court documents explain – “although the tensions between the Erba and Canzo groups showed no sign of decreasing, from the intercepted conversations it emerged that the collaborative relationship between the two groups – which involved Milazzo obtaining narcotics supplies from the Oppedisanos – had been reached and implemented“.
This also meant that the agreement and the sale of narcotics in the Como area had not fallen through in the midst of the Covid emergency in Lombardy. How did it end in the end? The investigation by the SCO (Central Operations Service) and the Como Flying Squad led to the arrest of 30 people, including the protagonists of this drug ring.
Who is Vincenzo Milazzo and what connection he has with Cosa Nostra
What is certain is that Vincenzo Milazzo had a fundamental role in the drug dealing streets of Comasco. He could do it 200 drug deliveries in one day, did not depend – operationally speaking – on anyone else. He did it alone. Under him he had a network of pushers to whom he paid a salary. Milazzo explained it again in an intercepted call: “I give the salarythere are those who earn 1,500 euros, there are those who earn 3 thousand because they work more for me, there are those who earn a thousand because they make me a little less, I managed it like this… I assure you lawyer… at the moment that I’m in prison, I guarantee my family is well…”. And despite Milazzo not having Calabrian origins “but that’s not why I’m going down to Calabria…we’re like family”.
According to him, however, he could boast more “illustrious” origins in terms of organized crime. In fact, he explained that his Sicilian origins were more illustrious from a criminal point of view: as the Court documents report, “the suspect, in fact, said that his grandfather and his father were very loyal to Peppe Di Cristina, Cosa Nostra boss of the Riesi family (Caltanissetta), killed by Totò Riina and the Corleonesi, as they had opposed Totò’s strategy. u curtu“. Milazzo boasted: “Do you know who De Cristina is? Peppe De Cristina Haven’t you seen the boss of bosses? Peppe De Cristina wanted my father… as a bodyguard ok… we are people who came from there… does a Calabrian scare me? …Totò Riina killed him“.
