In south-east Sicily, the economic penetration of the cosche grows
by Nino Amadore
3' min read
3' min read
A province defined as 'babba' (we can translate as stupid) crossroads of the mafias' international business. Another industrialised province where the mafia is well established in the economic and social fabric. On one side is Ragusa, on the other Syracuse: basically a good chunk of south-eastern Sicily, a rich area that seems accustomed to the presence of the mafia, just look at the low, indeed very low, number of extortion complaints. This is the picture that emerges from the fact-finding investigation conducted by the Regional Anti-Mafia Commission led by Antonello Cracolici: "The province of Ragusa is a crossroads of international criminal interests," he explains, "contrary to those who have often defined it as a 'babba' province, almost immune to mafia interests. I would rather say that it is an international 'babba'. The datum that emerges and is common to other provinces is that of a silent dimension of the mafia that no longer intimidates with gunfire but continues to accumulate weapons to ensure a balance of terror between cosche. Sooner or later these weapons will be available: against whom or against what, it is important to try to understand this in advance'.
According to the reconstruction of the regional Anti-Mafia Commission, which has held a number of hearings in recent weeks, in the transformed belt of the province of Ragusa (the coastal strip where greenhouse cultivation is predominant) there is a consolidated historical presence of the 'stidda' and 'cosa nostra' families, which over time have become one and the same, with interests that, from drug trafficking to money laundering, intersect not only with those of the Catania and Nissena families, but also with North African crime and with the island of Malta. Moreover, the activities of the police have shown a supply of drugs that also comes from direct relations with the Calabrian 'ndrangheta. "But the most worrying fact," says Cracolici, "is the absolute absence of complaints, with such a high degree of acquiescence that the extorted subjects are willing to undergo accusations of aiding and abetting, and this despite the investigative evidence. The Prefecture of Ragusa has launched a coordinated initiative to build a 'citadel of security' in Vittoria that can also interact with the territories of Catania, Caltanissetta and a large part of eastern Sicily to give physicality to the presence of the State. But the municipalities have a role to play: 'For some time,' says Cracolici, 'we have been advocating the need for municipalities to equip themselves with video surveillance equipment that can improve the work of investigation: the presence of the State is needed here.
In the province of Syracuse, in line with other provinces, the main problems detected by the Anti-Mafia Commission's listening session concern the control of the territory through drug trafficking, especially crack cocaine, but also the mafia's appetites in the tourist sector, which is expanding: especially in the catering and transport sectors in 2024, out of 11 anti-mafia interdictions, 9 concern the catering sector and 2 the construction sector. "In the Syracuse area, we find a mafia that is well inserted in the economic and social fabric, which does not frighten public reaction, thus raising the threshold of connivance with the criminal phenomenon, which is not experienced as a threat: as if it were natural and innate, like the sun and the air we breathe. A very low level of conflict that translates into golden deals for those who decide to reinvest their illicit capital in the so-called legal economy,' the chairman of the regional Anti-Mafia Commission further explained. 'We are convinced that the lower level of rooting of political forces in the territories,' Cracolici added, 'is paradoxically leading to greater conditioning of the only organised criminal families, so the risk of vote conditioning exists, even if there is no evidence to arouse the attention of the investigative forces. Low, then, is the level of complaints against extortion rackets, as was also bitterly noted by the five anti-racket associations in the area. "We have to understand whether this is due, as I fear, to the level of habituation and cohabitation, which is dangerous for the entrepreneurs themselves. Denouncing nowadays is convenient,' says Cracolici, 'there are rules that guarantee the protection of anonymity and in many cases we have discovered that the same denunciation by entrepreneurs acts as a deterrent to those who then come forward to ask for protection money.
