Through the delegation of the District Attorney of Naples, we inform you that the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Castello di Cisterna Group have carried out the preventive detention order issued by the GIP of the Court of Naples, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, against 44 people (for 34 of them ordered to be detained in prison, for 10 acts of house arrest), serious suspects, under various titles, crimes of the type mafia association as well as associations aimed at carrying out arbitrary games and betting, extortion, attempted extortion, crimes which is aggravated by mafia methods and aims to facilitate the Camorra clans to which they belong, as well as political mafia electoral exchanges.
In particular, from the detailed investigative activities – relating to the period 2022 – 2024 – and consisting, among other things, of interception (telephone and environmental) and observation services, the following emerged: the continued operation of the Russo clan, active in the Nola region and neighboring cities, which exercises control, direct and indirect, over all economic activities, especially in the real estate sector, demanding payment of sums of money on the sale of real estate, on planning procedures and on related practical processes. to the municipal government to carry out the work, then divide the proceeds among the members and contribute part of the proceeds to a common fund to support the families of the prisoners;
various extortion practices, against city engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, work clients, to obtain property or allow third parties to purchase or build it;
a system aimed at carrying out illicit gambling and betting activities, to be created, with the consent of the members of the Licciardi clan, by the Russo clan with agencies and sub-agencies operating in the Nola area, through the collection of secret bets and the management of online cash games, with the creation and management of secret sites in advance; the proceeds from this activity will be partly allocated to the association’s treasury, and partly to support retained members;
– further extortion to the detriment of gambling center owners to obtain repayment of debts incurred due to their participation in illicit gambling and gambling activities;
– alleged conditioning of the administrative elections in the Municipality of Cicciano, held in May 2023, and the elections in the Municipality of Casamarciano, held in June 2022, using the intermediary of third parties.
The measures taken are preventive measures ordered during the preliminary investigation, against which appeals are permitted and the recipients are the persons who underwent the investigation and, therefore, are presumed innocent until the final sentence is imposed.
