Usury in Vico Equense, the role of women and loans to merchants in difficulty.
Their businesses had been severely damaged by the economic consequences of the health emergency. For this reason, they had asked for loans ranging from a minimum of 1.000 to a maximum of 20.000 euros, money on which 10% monthly interest rates had been applied. A scenario of usury and harassment discovered by the Carabinieri of the Sorrento company gave rise to an order of precautionary custody issued by the investigating judge of the Torre Annunziata court at the request of the Oplontina prosecutor's office. The gang of loan sharks had also demanded to have dinner with the victims in a well-known restaurant to give the appearance of acquaintance and conviviality. Six people were involved. Since the fall of 2019, the military have been on the trail of the group, composed of Angelo Marchitano, Giuseppe Di Martino, Michele Ferraro, Mario Ferraro, Alessia Savarese and Marianna Annunziata, who through the illegal activity of loans at exorbitant interest rates brought several small entrepreneurs on the Sorrento coast and in the Stabia area to their knees.
Those acting in collaboration were above all Angelo Marchitano, Mario Ferraro, Marianna Annunziata, Michele Ferraro (all from Vico Equense except Marchitano who is from Castellammare di Stabia) who, as emerged from the investigations, had triggered a new action plan following the arrest of the latter in July 2019. In fact, Ferraro has been under house arrest since the summer of two years ago for complicity in extortion and arson, use of explosive devices, damage and unfair competition in the exercise of entrepreneurial activity. It was he who placed a bomb and damaged the windows of a hotel at the entrance to Vico Equense. An important role was that of Marianna Annunziata, Ferraro's wife, who was to solicit payments. Giuseppe Di Martino and Alessia Savarese, a couple in life, have operated together several times, in particular against the owner of a metal carpentry shop. Among the other victims of the group, owners of fishmongers, retail stores and an unemployed person. What induced them to ask for help was their situations of need. In some cases the money was used to pay for medical care for family members, in others to support the family following corporate failures. So far, ten episodes have been confirmed, to the detriment of six entrepreneurs from the Sorrento peninsula, during the investigations conducted by the operational section of the Norm of the Sorrento Carabinieri. Investigations, supported by witness evidence and telephone and environmental interceptions, which have had a breakthrough thanks also to "the collaborative attitude of some victims - underlines in a note the public prosecutor of Torre Annunziata, Nunzio Fragliasso - which has allowed investigators to reconstruct the mechanisms of usurious loans". The investigators have also found actual "ledger books" in which the importance of the loans and the names of the victims were reported. "The investigations - Fragliasso continues - revealed the situation of serious economic difficulty in which the victims found themselves, whose commercial activities had been severely affected by the effects caused by the Covid-19 epidemiological emergency, which led them to turn to the current suspects to obtain loans at usurious rates". At the same time, the Carabinieri also executed a preventive seizure order for movable and immovable assets attributable to some of the suspects. An apartment, a garage, a car, two motorcycles, three bank accounts, five bank savings books, four postal savings deposits, two Banco-Posta funds, four prepaid credit cards for a total value of close to 450.000 euros ended up under lock and key.
Article published on 6 January 2021 - 09:45
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