Nine years in prison for the 'cocco bello' racket in the Riviera Romagnola.
Justice begins to strike the first blows to the racket of illegal coconut sellers. The Court of Rimini has issued sentences against some members of the Neapolitan Manfredonia family, who rose to prominence in the summer of 2010, when the Police arrested some leading members of a branched criminal organization, as part of an operation conducted by the men of the Forlì Police Headquarters and the Cesenatico Summer Police Station, from which the investigations began.
The Romagna Court sentenced Mariano Manfedonia to five and a half years in prison and another member of the clan, Espedito Manfredonia, to three years and eight months. Criminal association, extortion, threats and violence are the main charges against an organization that wanted to become the owner of the Romagna beaches. The handcuffs for them and other members of the family were snapped on in August 2010. The Cesenatico police, led by Stefano Santandrea, lifted the lid on an organization that was taking over the territory with a mafia system. The Manfredonia family in fact managed dozens of illegal vendors who sold coconuts on all the beaches of the provinces of Forli'-Cesena, Rimini and Ravenna.
It was an organization set up to become a “money machine”, as it was defined by the investigators themselves, given that each of the illegal vendors in one summer pocketed 10 thousand euros and made the organization collect more than 30 thousand, for a total volume estimated at several million euros. The Manfredonias had begun to impose themselves with violence and even the beach operators were threatened directly and in broad daylight.
The investigations extended throughout Romagna and led to the seizure of two operational bases, one in Cervia and the other in Riccione, where coconuts were stored, cut and sorted, without any permit and above all without respecting the most basic hygiene and health standards. In 2014, nine members of the Neapolitan clan were sent for trial by Rimini judge Fiorella Casadei and summoned to court in Rimini on 5 February 2015. The racket was also covered by “Le Iene”, with a journalist who was threatened and beaten during a report.
Article published on 23 January 2021 - 12:31
Video Chronicles
