They collected money from the management of migrant centers: 41 people are under investigation

The Benevento DIGOS (Special Operations Unit), the Carabinieri of the Sannio Investigative Unit, and the members of the Salerno Anti-Adulteration and Health Unit have executed a precautionary custody order issued by the Benevento investigating judge, at the request of the Prosecutor's Office, against five people. The five include a public official, an employee of the Ministry of Justice and a member of the police force. The charges concern various crimes of fraud against the State for the purpose of obtaining public funds, fraud in public supplies, corruption and disclosure of official secrets in the context of the management of migrant reception centers in the province of Benevento. The investigation, explains a note from the prosecutor's office, began in November 2015 following a complaint and shed light on a series of serious behaviors. In particular, the investigations have allowed us to reconstruct a criminal system that essentially profited from the rigged assignments of migrants, the overcrowding of the centers, the false attestation of the presence of the guests, with the connivance of some public employees. In the same proceedings, 36 other people are being investigated, accused of various crimes. Paolo Di Donato, former administrator and for some years consultant of the Maleventum consortium, which manages several centers in Sannio, the entrepreneur Angelo Collarile, Giuseppe Pavone, employee of the Ministry of Justice, Felice Panzone, employee of the Prefecture, and the carabiniere Salvatore Ruta. The five are now under house arrest as part of the investigation. The alleged crimes contested to varying degrees range from fraud against the State in order to obtain public funds, to fraud in public supplies, corruption and disclosure of official secrets. “It was a real hospitality business in which the injured party was the migrants.” This is how the prosecutor of Benevento, Aldo Policastro, and the deputy prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, defined the operation that led to 5 people being placed under house arrest in the investigation into the management of reception centers and 36 people being investigated. “The migrants – they added – lived in inhumane conditions”. Five facilities that housed migrants were seized. “The Prosecutor’s Office deals with crimes, not politics.” Thus said the prosecutor of Benevento, Aldo Policastro, and the deputy prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, responding, in a press conference, to journalists who asked if the investigation that led to 5 people being placed under house arrest is nothing more than confirmation of Minister Salvini's words about a certain business-like management of the migrant business. Did the investigation into the migrant business in Sannio, completed by the Benevento Prosecutor's Office, which coordinated the investigations of the Digos of the Benevento Police Headquarters and the Carabinieri, receive compliments from Minister Salvini? “No, he didn’t have to.” This was the response from Benevento's prosecutor, Aldo Policastro, deputy prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, and police commissioner Giuseppe Bellassai at a press conference after investigators emphasized "the collaboration between law enforcement agencies" in the complex investigation into the reception of migrants. This investigation also involves several officials, all under investigation, from the public administration, the Ministry of Justice, and the prefecture. The investigation also involves five people arrested, including a Carabiniere and a prefecture official who served in Benevento until a few years ago.