Vincenzo Milazzo was among the former leaders of drug trafficking in the Como area and very close to the head of the Canzo ‘ndrangheta Locale Luigi Vona. He had distanced and threatened one of his most loyal followers when he discovered that he had stolen drugs for personal use: “If I don’t kill you it’s only because there’s a child”.
“If I don’t kill you it’s only because there’s a child. Find a hole to hide in“. This is the threat of Vincenzo Milazzo, one of the former leaders of the drug trafficking in Como and very close to the head of the Locale of ‘ndrangheta of Canzo Luigi Vona, addressed to those who betrayed his trust. But what happened shortly before? One of his most loyal followers would have made disappear 100 grams of narcotics thus preventing the organization from making money. This is just one of the episodes documented in the Como Police Headquarters operation that revealed how organized crime managed drug dealing in the Como area and especially in the territories under the jurisdiction of the ‘ndrangheta Locali of Erba and Canzo. The investigations then led to the arrest of 30 people in recent weeks.
Vincenzo Milazzo, now under investigation after the Mobile Squad raid, was in charge of managing a large part of the illegal traffic. The man had a network of pushers at his service that he himself called “workers”: the organization was in fact coordinated as if it were a commercial activity, with monthly salaries and working hours. As explained in the court documents, within the criminal organization, Joseph Lattuca, Joseph DiFranco, Lara Colantuono, Simone Liguori e Querina De Gennaroas well as the latter wife of Milazzo. All of them are now under investigation and recipients of precautionary measures.
How the criminal network of pushers in Como worked
To his most faithful, as proof of the hierarchical organization of the association, Vincenzo Milazzo guaranteed a monthly salaryHe himself chose his collaborators, so much so that one of them “I brought it up from Calabria“, as heard in an interception.
Prisoner sets fire to a cell in Como prison and attacks policewomen: four officers injured
Milazzo then explained his “enterprise” as follows: “Then anyway I pay them, they get a salary every month… f**k I’ll give a salary to ten people“. And again: “I feed half of Lombardy”. The leader of the group repeated several times that he had control of several pushers: “I am – you can hear in another conversation intercepted by the police – the one who holds everything (…) They are under me, no way they work like workers… they don’t buy to sell like everyone else does, they take mine and bring it to all my customers… they get paid for that, so they will never have debts, they will never have anything… if something happens the only one who takes it in the ass is me… that’s the question“.
So the whole group was able to do it 200 drug deliveries per night. In short, earnings and responsibilities for Milazzo who however dictated the law to his most faithful: first of all, if something happened he himself would be responsible for it but in exchange he required maximum trust from his people. And whoever betrayed him would risk dangerous consequences.
The Case of Giuseppe Di Franco
As in the case of Joseph DiFranco who, together with Giuseppa Lattuca, covered “the role of pusher and collaborator of Milazzo in the activity of selling the narcotic, as well as taking care of the preparation of the doses”, as revealed by the police. The drug was prepared in an apartment in Valbronastill in the province of Como. Di Franco betrayed the leader’s trust.
Milazzo himself had explained it in a conversation intercepted in the car together with Giuseppe Lattuca: the former had picked up the latter in prison after they had granted him the precautionary measure of house arrest from 16 October 2020. During the entire period of imprisonment, Milazzo had been the one to provide for the sustenance of Lattuca’s family and, once he was out, he was updating him on what had now happened within the group in his absence.
In the car Milazzo had informed the ex-convict that he had decided to send Giuseppe Di Franco away “because – as reported by the Court – of some shortages of narcotic substances (100 grams of cocaine) attributable to him. (…) Di Franco stole cocaine to consume it, stealing it from the half kilo that was in the safe“. After a short time, threats from the head of the organization did not fail: on September 19, 2020, Milazzo had sent two voice messages to Di Franco.
Here is the content: “If I don’t kill you it’s only because there’s a child… but be careful because I don’t know what I think… all the corners you’ve smoothed out… all the grams that are missing”. “Find a hole where you can hide… but a small one where I can’t see you… find it because now we’re opening it up, you’re ruined… find a nice hole, okay?“. “I’m taking him out!“.
So Giuseppe Di Franco had been removed. This episode had served Milazzo to demonstrate its intimidating power towards its pushers: whoever betrays its trust is out and risks severe threats.
