Organized crime has been sinking its roots into the waste cycle for years. To stop the eco-mafia, it is essential to strengthen prevention and control activities, especially as regards waste management companies.
But here in this land of the ‘ndrangheta, where the ‘ndrine continue to command and divide up territory and business, waste was the property of the Aranites. The old boss of Sambatello, as shown in the documents of the “Ducale” investigation which takes up the nickname of the boss called “Il Duca”, conducted by the prosecutor of the Republic of Reggio Calabria, Giovanni Bombardieri, by the deputies Stefano Musolino and Walter Ignazitto and from the deputy prosecutor Salvatore Rossello, it clearly emerges how Domenico Araniti, through an entrepreneur’s shell company, decided who should work within the structure and who not, and how the affairs should be managed together with the exponents of the Calanna gang.
The Sambatello plant and business
“The MSW disposal plant of Sambatello in Reggio Calabria, built in the 1980s, is part of the integrated regional MSW management system called Calabria Sud. The structure is located close to the Gallico – Gambarie expressway. The Carabinieri of the Ros – the magistrates write in the order – provided a detailed description of the site and the corporate events that, over the years, have characterized it:
The investigative findings relating to the Sambatello plant give an account of clear and precise dynamics of mafia management of the territory, highlighting the control of economic activities, precise rules for repairing the territory, clashes between groups for the control of the ‘Ndrangheta and related interests and finally of the hidden action behind important entrepreneurial realities, which inevitably end up receiving and making use of mafia protection”.
In giving his orders, Aranitii is clear and explains: “whoever ‘feels like’ could have carried out the job of guard…inc…” while those who ‘don’t feel like’ ‘take the broom and clean’, speaks the boss with Carmelo Trapani known as “The Turkey” and he “affirmed that he had taken into account the difficulties that, first of all, “my cousin” would have encountered in a place that “then sends people here who feels like the boss and who feels less”, and the investigators explain that “here was recorded the strong intervention of Francesco Araniti, known as “U Parenti” who, dashing the hopes of his unemployed interlocutor, stated that his cousin “does not send to anyone because the conditions for “send him the Christians, still maintaining that people are hired directly by the Municipality or the Region”.
On this point, Trapani maintained that “«I think about the assumptions… how things are shaping up everywhere… how do you go about telling a person… that you want a glass of water…” and Araniti completed the sentence: “they will arrest you immediately”. Trapani, agreeing with this last statement, specified that he had developed this belief on the basis of what he had read in the last period. He further clarified to his interlocutor that he had nothing to claim – «I was… if there is the possibility…» – shortly after believing that «here, there is an underlying error» stating that he was convinced of the fact that – with reference to a third person, ed. —«you don’t want me to go up to the mountains, because you have something of yours… and you don’t want… so what?… eh or… to “never-care” about it…”.
Francesco Araniti’s response was eloquent and he was keen to clarify: «I’m not telling you for your sake, I’m speaking in general – what does it have to do with it… I’m talking… but a job opens up and other jobs open up. things!… and then, what I tell you, do you think that I “zannio” at the time, to tell him “do, do what you want!”, do you think I’m joking? (…) times have changed!… and we must adapt!»
Sambatello, the Committee: “The Vallata del Gallico is considered the city’s dustbin”
But regarding the waste and the Sambatello plant, the role of Daniel Barillà also emerges from the investigation, arrested and placed under house arrest, son-in-law of Domenico Araniti, indicated by the investigators as a top exponent of the gang of the same name, would have “altered the voting operations in the electoral rounds of 2020, when voting was held for the regional and municipal elections of Reggio, and of 2021, the year in which the regional consultations were repeated after the premature death of president Jole Santelli”.
In June 2020, a protest mounted by the inhabitants of Sambatello who did not want the ecoballs. But from what emerges from the Ducale investigation “there was also a bitter telephone confrontation between Daniel Barillà and the then mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà, during which the latter – the magistrates write – showed himself annoyed due to the protest of the newly formed Committee Pro Sambatello, of which Barillà was the promoter, against the decision taken by the Municipality of Reggio Calabria to package solid urban waste in eco-bales to be stored inside the TMB metropolitan plant of Sambatello, considering the protest an instrumental action to obscure its figure in view of the upcoming municipal elections”.
“Barillà, after the unsuccessful attempt to influence the political decisions of Mayor Falcomatà, – highlight the investigators – replied fearing an appeal to the TAR against the ordinance issued by the Municipality of Reggio Calabria.
“A few days after the aforementioned conversation, on 16 June 2020, the local newspapers reported the news that Mayor Falcomatà had agreed to address the ecoballe issue with a group of representatives of the Pro Sambatello Committee. Daniel Barillà also took part in the meeting , who subsequently informed the regional councilor Giuseppe Neri of the relative contents, “mainly focusing the discussion on the fact that Falcomatà had invited him to consult any “friends” who sat at the tables of the regional government, to find a solution to the problem of ecoballs, thus making it clear – the magistrates conclude – that they were aware of the existing relationship between Barillà and Neri”.
