FOGGIA – A vast anti-mafia operation was launched last night in Foggia and its province, where the Carabinieri coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) executed a preventive detention order against 82 people, including superiors, affiliates and contiguous people of the so-called Foggia company. Ordinances are also carried out in other regions of Italy.
During the operation, called ‘Game Over’, the carabinieri seized weapons and drugs. The order against 82 people, 81 in prison and 1 under house arrest, was issued by the Gip de Bari court at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate with the coordination of the national anti-mafia prosecutor. Affected, according to the investigations, senior managers, affiliated and contiguous to the three batteries that make up the so-called Foggiana society as organized mafia crime is called in Foggia. Many of the recipients of the warrants are already in custody. Among the controversial crimes, drug trafficking.
The three dominant clans of ‘society’ have exerted their “mafia pressure” to monopolize the cocaine trade in Foggia. According to the reports that led to some 80 arrests, the criminal organization would have planned the cocaine traffic in detail through continuous meetings in which strict rules were determined; it has imposed a monopoly on the sale of cocaine in the city through an intimidating force derived from the feared criminal nature of the individuals at the top of the organization directly invested by the clan’s historical leaders. The benefits obtained can be quantified at around 200,000 euros per month through the sale of 50,000 doses of cocaine.
The clans meticulously kept accounts of the profits derived from the activity of the “trafficking squads”, raising the money through the “reverse circle” of drug traffickers. The drug trafficking management methods provided for the attribution, within the association, of well-defined roles for each one.
The investigation that led to the arrests began in 2016 after the murder of Roberto Tizzano and the wounding of Roberto Bruno, members of the Moretti-Pellegrino-Lanza clan. Patrizio Villani, Cosimo Damiano Sinesi and Francesco Sinesi were finally convicted of the crime. According to what the investigators found out, the mastermind behind the ambush was Francesco Sinesi, in response to the assassination attempt, perpetrated two months earlier, on his father Roberto Sinesi, head of the clan of the same name.
The crime scene, the “All’H24” bar on the outskirts of Foggia, turned out to be the base of operations for drug trafficking. The operation carried out today, called Game over, represents, explained the investigators at the press conference, the continuation of the fight against the mafia organization ‘foggianà company, also carried out with the Tithe and Tithe bombing, which brought to light the extortions of criminal organizations from Foggia to businessmen and merchants in the city.
AGREEMENT BETWEEN MILLIONAIRE CLAN ON COCAINE TRAFFICKING
The criminal organizations of the Foggia mafia, defined as ‘society’, had reached an agreement on drug trafficking worth millions of euros a year, especially cocaine. The income thus obtained was used to support the activities of the clans and the families of the prisoners. This was confirmed by the Carabinieri when this morning he arrested 82 people accused, for various reasons, of trafficking and complicity in drug trafficking and association for the illegal possession of weapons. All are questioned by the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method. Only one suspect is also charged with extortion. The precautionary order was issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Bari at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate.
According to what emerged from the investigations, the three Moretti-Pellegrino-Lanza, Sinesi-Francavilla and Triscuoglio-Prencipe-Tolonese clans had overcome their rivalries to agree on the sole direction of drug trafficking. The “society” would have imposed the obligation to introduce the cocaine supplied by the cartel into the city circuit at a price of 55 euros per gram, higher than the 48 euros applied by drug traffickers who were not part of the association. The proceeds were used to replenish the common fund of the Foggia mafia and support the families of the prisoners.
Among the recipients of the precautionary order are also Roberto Russo, known as the Colombian, murdered in Foggia on March 25 of last year; and Rocco Moretti and Ciro Francavilla, considered prominent elements of the Foggia mafia.
(photo Donato Fasano)
THE DECLARATIONS OF THE PREFECT
“This is an investigative success, the result of the tenacity and extraordinary work carried out daily by the judicial and police forces and to which I express my gratitude and appreciation for the effective preventive and police work aimed at restoring legality in a context especially exposed to criminal influences.” This is how the prefect of Foggia, Maurizio Valiante, comments on the carabinieri operation, coordinated by the district’s anti-mafia leadership, which this morning made dozens of arrests in the Foggia area.
“This great victory of the State -he continues- comforts all the social and economic components of the territory, strengthening their confidence and promoting socio-institutional cohesion, and further encourages all those who are committed daily to the protection and firm affirmation of the law in our province”.
(video Donato Fasano)
MELILLO NATIONAL ANTI-MAFIA PROSECUTOR: THE GAME HAS JUST BEGUN
“The game has just begun with the crime of Foggia, in particular with the Foggia mafia organization, the ‘society’, which reveals itself in its complexity, in its extremely sophisticated system of organizing energy around a gigantic drug market like the one that revolves around the city of Foggia: an organization capable of distributing more than 50,000 doses of cocaine per month and, therefore, of revolving an extraordinary mass of money around this criminal circuit”. This was stated by the national anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo at a press conference, at the offices of the anti-mafia district of Bari, when commenting on the ‘Game over’ operation that this morning resulted in dozens of arrests in the Foggia area.
The money collected by the ‘company’, explained the prosecutor, “serves to support a forecast system for the management expenses of the criminal organization, the monthly salaries owed to the affiliates and the families of the detained affiliates.” This operation, he stressed, “is just one step, albeit a very important one, for the deconstruction of an extremely refined criminal system, with its own structure and connections also at the national and international level, with important drug import channels. The Foggia mafias have deep ties to other criminal organizations, in particular the ‘Ndrangheta’.
PINTEDOSE: STRONG RESPONSE FROM THE STATE
“Congratulations to the National Anti-Mafia Directorate and the Carabinieri who, with an impressive operation, have dealt a very heavy blow to the Foggia mafia, one of the most dangerous and violent criminal organizations. It is a strong response from the State that once again confirms the extraordinary commitment of the investigative bodies to effectively counteract this criminal network that seeks to impose its presence through illicit trafficking and extortion.” This was stated by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi.
“With all the support of the Government -adds Piantedosi-, the Judiciary and the Police continue to achieve important results in the affirmation of legality and the fight against mafias throughout the national territory. The fight against the mafias is and will always be the priority of our government”.
EMILIANO: THE STATE IS THERE
“Today a heavy blow was dealt to the criminal organization ‘Società Foggiana’ and I can only express my most sincere congratulations for the work carried out by the military of the Carabinieri of the Foggia Command, coordinated by the Bari DDA.” This is the comment of the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, in relation to the Game over maxi-operation with which precautionary measures were ordered against 82 suspects.
«The State exists -says Emiliano- and works constantly for the affirmation of legality and justice. The success of this massive operation confirms that citizens can always have confidence in the institutions, the judiciary and the police. I thank the Dda prosecutor, Roberto Rossi, the provincial commander of the Foggia Carabinieri, Michele Miulli, and the women and men who work as a team with them for this important success.”
«The anti-mafia operation completed in these hours is the most important seed of hope for the future of Foggia. We must believe and fight so that the best part of the community prevails and the worst understands the advantages of being on the side of the law. Thanks to the judiciary and thanks to the forces of order, which keep the pressure on the mafia associations very high, guaranteeing stability to a function of the State that is essential for the moral and material growth of our land”. This was stated by the Vice President of the Puglia Region, Raffaele Piemontese, when commenting on the operation against the ‘company’ Foggia.
Giuseppe Conte: “Fundamental interceptions”
«A few weeks ago I was in Foggia to shout loudly with the M5, the associations and the citizens ‘let’s raise our heads against organized crime’. Today we know the news of the 82 arrests and the severe blow to the Foggia mafia in the ‘Game Over’ operation, for which I thank the investigation unit of the Foggia Carabinieri Provincial Command, the magistrates of the Bari District Anti-Mafia Directorate and the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, all the special units involved in this operation”.
Former Prime Minister and current leader of the Five Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, wrote it in a Facebook post, commenting on the arrests made today in Foggia. “In the Government we have strengthened the struggles of the State in that territory against the ‘Società Foggian ales to corner the mafias. ”
