The Teramo State Police carried out the arrest of 19 Nigerian citizens belonging to a mafia-type association called "Supreme Eiye Confraternity (SEC)" or "EIYE", a partnership rooted in Nigeria, but widespread in many European and non-European states , equated by structure and intimidating force to traditional mafias.
The cult is structured in national divisions called AVIARY divided, in turn, into local territorial cells called Nest (nest).
The detention was ordered by the L'Aquila District Anti-Mafia Directorate and carried out by the Teramo Mobile Squad, with the staff of the Section Against Organized Crime, in collaboration with the Ancona Mobile Squad.
The complex activity arises in the wake of similar important national investigations on Eiye and constitutes further study and confirmation of the roots of these mafia groups and of the network of relations, including international ones, which makes them particularly insidious.
The people arrested are organic to the local cell (Nest) called "PESHA" which has geographical and territorial competence from the coastal area of the province of Teramo to Ancona. The investigation activity has made it possible to ascertain that the aforementioned territorial cell of the "Eiye", as well as the mafia association of which it constitutes a rib, is characterized by the "secrecy of the association bond", the "ritual of affiliation", the adoption of rigorous language and symbolism, the violence of actions.
Entry into the association is subject to an "affiliation rite" which takes place in the presence of the top and other members of the group and during which acts of violence alternate with tribal rites and the oath of allegiance to the Eiye is formulated with which the franchisee undertakes to respect the rules of the association called "orientation". Entry into the confraternity provides for the obligation to participate, through the payment of a sort of "registration fee", in the financing of the confraternity towards which the members tend to be available "for life".
Characterized by a strict hierarchy with the provision of roles and positions to which specific powers correspond within, assigned to control compliance with internal rules, and is aimed at the commission of an indeterminate number of crimes: money laundering and illegal financial intermediation towards the Nigeria; trafficking in young women sexually exploited along the Bonifica del Tronto road and subjected to violence and harassment; transfer of drugs; violent crimes against adherents to other cults or punitive towards other compatriots.
The members of the association object of this investigation as it happens for traditional mafias make use of the force of intimidation of the associative bond, determining subjugation, silence, control of the territory, with particular reference to the Nigerian community, but with an inevitable reflection on the overall community.
The investigations have, in fact, allowed to document that the group's intimidating power was substantiated in the commission of violent corporal punishment against affiliates who did not respect the strict rules, in the use of physical violence also for the resolution of internal conflicts deemed to obstacle to the delinquent and dominant purposes of the association, in forcing third parties to join even against their will or to oppose and clash with cult rivals (such as that of the "Black Ax") in order to assume and maintain dominance within the large Nigerian community.
During the investigation many meetings of the members of the association were documented which took place mainly, for reasons of secrecy, in the homes of the leaders. During these meetings these (called Ibaka) defined the group's criminal strategies. During these meetings violent punitive actions decided by Ibaka were carried out and affiliations took place, as in the case of one of the members of the group who, after the violent beating suffered, decided to collaborate with the investigating authority.
Physical assaults have been documented by members of the association that took place in Martinsicuro to force third parties to join, violent clashes in Pesaro and Ancona with members of the opposing Nigerian brotherhood of the "Black Ax", violence committed against some young women, forced into prostitution along the SP Bonifica del Tronto, according to the now well-known scheme of the debt repayment bond, imposed by means of the juju ritual.
The arrest was ordered because for many of the suspects the escape was imminent, given the contacts with compatriots in France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden and the shared expatriation projects, also with their families already residing abroad.
For the execution of the detentions, the Teramo Mobile Squad worked as well as in collaboration with the Ancona Mobile Squad that collaborated in the investigations, with the help of the Ascoli Piceno and Agrigento Mobile Teams and with the Crime Prevention Department “Abruzzo ”Of Pescara.
Of the 19, 4 investigated at the moment are unavailable and sought.