Crime

Milan, pact between mafias (but no confederation) in the name of business

The Re-examination Court confirms the Prosecution's line already expressed in the Anti-Mafia Commission

14 October 2024

3' min read

The judges of the Milan Re-examination Court, called upon to decide on the appeal by 79 of the protagonists of the Hydra investigation, maintain - in line with the Prosecutor's Office and contrary to the approach of the gip Tommaso Perna - the existence in Lombardy of an alleged 'pact' between the three main mafias: Cosa Nostra, 'ndrangheta and Camorra.

Twelve months ago

A year ago, the gip had rejected 140 requests for arrests for the 153 suspects and had only ordered the imprisonment of 11 persons accused of various crimes, but not charged with mafia association.

The Review

The Board of the Milan Re-examination held that it was 'amply demonstrated that the contested association had made effective, concrete, actual and perceptible use - also with violent or threatening methods - of the force of intimidation in the commission of crimes as well as in the acquisition of control and management of economic activities, which are precisely the areas of activity that, according to the regulatory parameter, typify the mafia nature of the group'.

In the note by the president of the Milan Court Fabio Roia, it is stated that the 'association "participated (at various levels) by subjects of different Mafia origins and with an operational scope undoubtedly connoted in Mafia terms", according to the re-examination board.

In short, 'it can be considered that individual individuals, including those belonging to the so-called historical mafias, have formed a mafia-type association that is not, however, configurable either as a confederation of mafias or as a 'supermafia', having transferred into the horizontal association all the genetic traits of the associations to which they belong'.

Viola in Commission

On 1 August 2023 in the Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission, the head of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office, Marcello Viola, and the deputy Alessandra Dolci, had already stated that the picture had changed

The picture has changed

Recent ongoing investigations,' Chief Prosecutor Viola told the commissioners, 'have made it possible to highlight convergences of interests of the three main Mafia organisations in money laundering activities, as well as in drug trafficking;

"This is particularly alarming," explained Viola, "because it allows the creation and subsequent consolidation in transversal criminal networks between the various organisations, extending the range of action even over new territorial contexts, which until then had not yet been affected by the mafia presence. Up to this point, we had only recorded more or less extemporaneous forms of collaboration, at times more or less lasting, between the various organisations, which in turn were antagonistic in the territorial division of slices of the narcotics market. On the contrary, recent investigative evidence has revealed the existence of agreements, even stable and long-lasting, between the different components - Calabrian, Sicilian and Camorra-type criminality - of a system of co-interests, of relations between groups, at times uneven, but nevertheless associated through the common contribution of capital, the provision of means, the provision of human resources, the setting up of companies, all elements functionally aggregated by the common purpose of profiting from multiple activities, apparently lawful in some cases, which constitute the source of the revenue of these criminal organisations'.

These are mafia dynamics that define an evolved criminal network, which meets over concrete interests, 'it being clear to all that it is much more productive to have a system in which one is at peace than one in which one is at war, attracting the attention of the state's repressive action,' Viola said;

This is the general climate, with Milan being the economic and financial heart of the country and the concentration of events and public investment linked to the organisation of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

Roberto Galullocaporedattore-inviato
Luogo: Milano
Argomenti: Economia criminale, criminalità organizzata, pubblica amministrazione, fisco
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