The Attorney General's Office of Bari issued 40 detention orders following final convictions. The “Pilastro” investigation, launched in March 2011 following the murder of Giuseppe Mizzi, has allowed to demonstrate the guilt of Antonio Battista (sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment) as the instigator of the crime and of Emanuele Fiorentino and Edoardo Bove (sentenced in another trial to 20 and 13 years of imprisonment respectively) as the material perpetrators. (The investigations of the Investigative Unit of the Operational Department have revealed that Battista, at the time the operational regent of the Di Cosola clan, after having suffered an armed attack during which he was injured, ordered a blatant revenge that saw, by mistake, the murder of Giuseppe Mizzi, who was found not to be involved in criminal circles. The impressive network of wiretaps has allowed, during the entire investigation, conducted by the Provincial Command of Bari, to reveal the reorganization and expansion of the Di Cosola clan in the period between 1910 and 1911. 2011 and 2015, under the leadership of Cosimo Di Cosola. The same investigation also brought to light all the criminal activities consistently conducted by the clan under his leadership, from extortion to drug trafficking, which targeted numerous thriving drug dealing centers in various neighborhoods of the Municipality of Bari, and in the municipalities of Valenzano, Capurso, Casamassima, Adelfia, and Bitritto. The construction sector also did not escape the criminal agenda of the Di Cosola clan. During the investigations, a dense network of extortion against numerous local businessmen emerged, who were forced to pay huge sums of money to the clan in exchange for protection. In some cases, to avoid retaliation, the businessmen were forced to purchase cement produced by the company of Vito Nicola Procida (a clan associate sentenced to 10 years in prison in the first instance). During the investigations, several cross-checks were carried out, which They contained the clan's dangerousness until the execution of the 64 pre-trial detention orders issued by the Bari DDA, which took place at dawn on April 21, 2015, allowing the clan's complete dismemberment and the seizure of numerous properties and the concrete quarry. Following the first and second instance trials, with the sentences now final, this morning, approximately four years after the arrests, the Carabinieri executed 40 detention orders for those convicted who chose the fast-track trial.
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