The Catania State Police, as part of a specific activity aimed at combating organized crime, implemented the asset prevention measure, envisaged by the so-called Anti-Mafia Code, with two separate seizure decrees, urgently anticipated, issued against two well-known pluri-prejudices, already detained, as they are sentenced by final judgment for mafia association.
One of the two, a historical figure belonging to the "Santapaola-Ercolano" mafia organization, in which he has always held top roles, mainly devoting himself to drug trafficking and extortion, has long been the manager of the so-called "eighty-palmi" group, operating in the neighborhood San Cristoforo of this capital.
The patrimonial investigations, focused in the period between 1980 and 2019, have made it possible to ascertain the absolute disproportion of the assets in the availability of man compared to the income capacity of the same and the relative family unit.
The Prevention Court therefore ordered the preventive seizure aimed at the confiscation of numerous properties, including 5 apartments, 2 motor vehicles and 5 small / medium-sized cars, a car rental company as well as several financial relationships, for an estimated value of about 1 million euros, assets all attributable to members of the criminal partnership.
A singular aspect highlighted during the operations, the expensive and showy furnishings of the seized apartments and the unusual presence, within some of them, of 7 carriages and prestigious carriages.
The results obtained confirm the continuous commitment of the State Police of this Province in the fight against organized crime and in the fight against entrepreneurial activities, through which criminal organizations reuse illicitly accumulated capital and blend in with the legal economy. In this context, the strategy of the Prosecutor and the Police Headquarters continues to be based on the systematic aggression of the partnerships on the property side, through investigative activities aimed at the seizure and confiscation of the proceeds and assets obtained from the criminal activities.
This systemic aggression to date has led to the following overall results obtained in the last year, consisting of no. 2 asset confiscations, for a value of approximately € 16.500.000 million, nr. 4 asset seizures, for a value of approximately € 2.000.000, nr. 4 proposals for asset prevention measures, with requests for the seizure of assets for a value of approximately € 4 million, 1 request for asset assessments aimed at applying the prevention measure pursuant to article 34 of the anti-mafia code.