The State Police of Milan, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office - District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Lombard capital, is executing a precautionary custody order against various people held responsible, for various reasons, for the crimes of criminal association of the mafia type, traffic of drugs, attempted extortion, attempted murder, receiving stolen goods, illegal carrying of weapons, aggravated theft, detention for the purpose of drug dealing, fictitious registration and electoral coercion, usury, all aggravated by the protest of the mafia.
The complex investigative activity carried out by the policemen of the Milan Mobile Squad shed light on the dynamics of the 'Ndrangheta club in Pioltello (MI), the undisputed fiefdom of the MAIOLO / MANNO families and on the criminal activities of another subject attributable to the Pietraperzia Cosa Nostra family (EN) connected to the RINZIVILLO; the investigation made it possible to ascertain how the "Locale di Pioltello", already recognized as an 'Ndrangheta structure in the context of the "Infinito" operation conducted by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Milan in 2010, through its contact person, awarded the period of the position of "company head", after having served a sentence of 11 years and 4 months of imprisonment for mafia association and drug trafficking, was operational again trying to impose the hegemony of his family on the territory, although subjected to the measure of the Special Supervision of Public Security, through a series of intimidations, consisting of both physical and verbal violence.
The picture that emerged during the numerous interceptions, services and stakeouts carried out by the agents of the 1st Organized Crime Section of the Flying Squad was that of a pervasive mafia structure, strongly linked to the typical signs and symbols of the 'Ndrangheta: in two circumstances, the State Police documented how one of the suspects, addressing his nephew, on the one hand explained to him the importance of blood ties which ensure an "automatic" affiliation and, on the other hand, illustrated the importance of recognizing the "signs" of the 'Ndrangheta in such a way as to be able to recognize each other among members.
As proof of the indiscriminate use of violence by the subjects probably belonging to the mafia association, there is also the dispute of a hypothesis of attempted murder in an episode which involved a member of the family under investigation and some Albanian citizens for a question of drugs degenerated, before the intervention of the police, in a brawl. This episode, however, has created a strong disagreement in the family since the behavior of the perpetrator of the attempted murder is considered impulsive: the various conversations involving various members of the Locale, at a certain point, in fact, brought out from part of the regent of the family, the idea of suppressing the brother who committed the attempted murder, a fact which then did not materialize, confirming the 'Ndrangheta's propensity to keep a low profile.
The investigations revealed how this pervasiveness and violence was combined with the organization's ability to manage considerable flows of money from illicit activities that produced liquidity to be reused: repeated registrations of companies to nominees were documented to evade the provisions of the law in matter of preventive measures. A real well-tested system in which, through the issuing/receiving of invoices for non-existent operations or with over-invoicing as well as fake hiring of employees, the healthy fabric of the local economy was polluted by achieving illicit profits in the logistics and of funeral services.
Furthermore, cases have also been documented of entrepreneurs who, establishing relationships bordering on connivance, made use of the services offered by some of the suspects to make a profit in terms of labor and manpower costs: the case of a well-known manufacturing company was emblematic logistics which, through some cooperative companies attributable to the suspects, in fact acted as if the members of the same were employees of the company.
Illicit activities that did not stop even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic: in fact, during a conversation, he was described as one of the sons of the regent of the Locale, affiliated with the dowry of "sgarrista", sensing the possibility of making a profit on the phenomenon of transporting the bodies of victims of the virus, speaking with another suspect, while the images of the column of bodies transported by the Army scrolled on television, he explained how to be able, through a company in the name of a figurehead and the issue of false invoices, obtain illicit profits in the coffin transport sector. As further confirmation of the MAIOLO/MANNO family's ability to influence the territory, the hypothesis of electoral coercion crime was documented and contested as it was ascertained how the Locale had attempted to influence the vote for the local municipal elections in favor of one of the candidates.
In addition to the 'Ndrangheta family, the Flying Squad, coordinated by the Milan District Attorney's Office, requested and obtained the issuance of a precautionary custody order against a person belonging to the Pietraperzia (EN) mafia family connected to the RINZIVILLOs, to which the hypotheses of usury and fictitious registration aggravated by the mafia have been contested. The man, particularly active in the field of usury loans that were reinvested in real estate and movable assets, including luxury cars subjected to preventive seizure, according to the investigations, would have intertwined agreements for the division of the territory with the 'Ndrangheta family of Pioltello.
The operations, still ongoing, involve dozens of policemen from the Milan Flying Squad, in collaboration with the staff of the Milan Crime Prevention Department, from the dog units of the Milan Police Headquarters.