The State Police and the Guardia di Finanza of Florence stop the rise of a Camorra clan and block Covid funding: precautionary measures for 13 people
From the first light of dawn, agents of the State Police of Florence and soldiers of the Guardia di Finanza of Florence are engaged in an important police operation directed by the Florentine District Anti-Mafia Directorate, directed by the Chief Prosecutor Dr. Giuseppe Creazzo, and coordinated by National Anti-Mafia Directorate, in the Tuscan capital and in some locations in the provinces of Salerno, Prato, Latina, Verona and Potenza.
The more than 150 members of the police involved are executing a provision by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Florence, Dr. Antonio Pezzuti, who ordered 12 precautionary measures, of which 7 in prison, 3 in house arrest and 2 Provisions for disqualification from exercising professional activities; the latter concern an accountant and a labor consultant, respectively with offices in Prato and Nocera Inferiore (SA).
The preventive seizure of current accounts and sums of money has also been ordered.
The GIP at the Juvenile Court of Florence, Dr. Eugenia Di Falco, at the request of the Chief Prosecutor of the local Public Prosecutor's Office at the Juvenile Court, Dr. Antonio Sangermano, also ordered the measure of placement in the community against a minor.
The measures were adopted following investigations coordinated by the Deputy District Attorney of Florence Dr. Leopoldo De Gregorio and carried out jointly by the Mobile Squad of the Police Headquarters of Florence and by the GICO (Investigation Group on Organized Crime) of the Guardia di Finanza of Florence, in collaboration with the Central Operations Service, with the Mobile Teams of Salerno, Potenza, Verona, as well as with the SCICO and with the Provincial Commands of the Guardia di Finanza of Salerno, Prato and Latina.
The crimes charged to the suspects are those of criminal association with the aggravating mafia for having facilitated the Camorra clan, present in the province of Salerno. The association was aimed at the commission of crimes against property, receiving stolen goods, theft, detention and abusive carrying of firearms and explosives, violation of immigration legislation, undue receipt of public funds, as well as money laundering and reuse. of money, goods or benefits of illicit origin.
The investigations, launched in July 2020, immediately made it possible to ascertain that two brothers had just started a new criminal association entity in Florence, to which a plurality of offenses, committed on different occasions, of the types mentioned above were attributable.
In particular, it was noted that a pizzeria located in the Florentine capital, acquired in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, in fact constituted the headquarters where, almost daily, the members of the criminal association held their meetings and where they went to store and receive what is in their possession, proceeds from the illegal activities committed shortly before.
Moreover, it was ascertained that the commercial license of the public city had been obtained through the presentation of a false declaration on the existence of the requisites of integrity of the applicant, not possessed by the latter as he is already the recipient of a personal preventive measure. time adopted by the Court of Salerno.
Likewise, the same false attestation was used so that the management company of the pizzeria could unduly obtain non-repayable grants and loans with a state guarantee for 32 thousand euros, exploiting the regulatory provisions of the Covid 2020 emergency decree regarding measures to support businesses. in difficulty. The immediacy of the investigative activities, however, also prevented the organization from progressing in this illegal “self-financing” practice, obtaining further guaranteed disbursements for approximately 90 thousand euros already requested from two separate credit institutions.
The proceeds of the criminal activities carried out by the association were reinvested, both in the city of Florence and in Nocera Inferiore (SA), self-financing the new local Camorra clan (ex art.416 bis), but also supporting the associates, still present in the territory of origin and involved in a feud with a rival clan, whose violent escalation was established during the investigation and had started when the clan chief, brother of the manager of the Florentine pizzeria, was released from prison in December 2020 .
The numerous retaliations between the clans - whose violent episodes materialized on the eve of Christmas 2020 and, in the first months of 2021 - also affected the Florentine area; the members of the opposing group, in fact, sent some associates to Florence, who were responsible for the known explosion of a paper bomb, which took place on the night of 23 February 2021 near the pizzeria. An episode that aroused serious social alarm in the Florentine community.
Finally, the responsibility of the manager of the pizzeria in the Florentine capital and other associates was found to be responsible in terms of aiding illegal immigration, in particular, for having tried to illegally procure the entry into the national territory of non-EU citizens, through the undue exploitation of the legislation of July 2020 (Prime Ministerial Decree of 7 July 2020 and related application Circular of 12 October following on the subject of migratory flows).
Involved no less than 15 non-EU citizens, mainly from Bangladesh, who were asked for 1.500 euros for each recruitment procedure.
In practice, by providing the partnership with the availability of over a hundred copies of identity documents of non-EU citizens, false employment contracts were drawn up which indicated, as the presumed place of work, both the pizzeria and other Florentine businesses. , with the sole purpose of allowing the submission of applications by compliant entrepreneurs found from time to time.