Florence. Pizza, mussels, babà and bombs: the Camorra feud moves to Florence where the Cuomo clan gets its hands on Covid contributions and illegal immigration of non-EU citizens.
The operation by the State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, coordinated by the DDA of Florence, Operation Revenge, which ended this morning, resulted in 12 arrests, 7 in prison and 3 under house arrest.
Well-known faces of organized crime in the province of Salerno ended up in jail. Nocera Inferiore is the town of origin of most of those arrested, young and not so young scions of a clan, the Cuomos, fighting with their long-time rivals 'those from Piedimonte'. Camorra, abuses, thefts, illegality and the long arm on Covid funding destined for businesses, exported to Florence and the province, with the involvement of two professionals, one from Nocera Inferiore and another from Prato, recipients of a prohibitory measure.
The brothers Michele and Luigi Cuomo, aged 41 and 39, Domenico Rese, aged 35, Filippo Boffardi, Gennaro De Prisco, aged 43, all from Nocera Inferiore, ended up in jail and members of the criminal group of the Cuomo brothers. Together with them they were arrested Sabato Mariniello, 29 years old and Luigi D'Auria, 28 years old, the rivals of the criminal group of 'Piedimonte' (a fraction of Nocera Inferiore). Under house arrest also Michele Cuomo (class of 202) son of Luigi Cuomo, Vincenzo Rufolo, 40 years old from Salerno, partner of the mother of the Cuomo brothers; and Umberto Riccio, 42 years old, from Nocera resident in Florence. Accountants banned for 12 months Saverio D'Antonio of Nocera Inferiore and Alessandro Malniti of Prato. Among the suspects there is also a minor placed in a community and a trader of Latina, Diodato Civale, in addition to a Bangladeshi citizen, Shahin Kazi, resident in Florence.
The blitz, directed by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Florence led by prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo, under the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, took place in the Tuscan capital and in some localities in the provinces of Salerno, Prato, Latina, Verona and Potenza. The preventive seizure of bank accounts and sums of money was ordered. Among the recipients of the measures was also a minor who was placed in a community.
The crimes contested to the suspects are those of criminal association with the aggravating circumstance of mafia for having facilitated the Camorra clan of the Cuomo brothers, present in Nocera Inferiore and in the province of Salerno, linked to the Mazzarella clan of Naples. The association was aimed at committing crimes against property, receiving stolen goods, theft, illegal possession and carrying of firearms and explosives, violation of immigration laws, the undue receipt of public funds, as well as the laundering and reinvestment of money, goods or utilities of illicit origin.
The investigations, started in July 2020, immediately made it possible to ascertain that two brothers had created a criminal association in Florence that was responsible for many crimes, committed on several occasions. The group had chosen a pizzeria in Florence, Pizza, cozze e babà in via Leopolda Gabbingiani, acquired in the aftermath of the start of the Covid pandemic, as a place to meet to store and receive stolen goods. But also to commit a series of other crimes. Among which those of the commission of thefts: two of those recorded by investigators, including an electric mountain bike, stolen right in front of the Florentine restaurant.
According to investigators, the restaurant's commercial license had been obtained thanks to false declarations regarding the existence of the requirements of honorability of the applicant, one of the Cuomo brothers who was instead under special surveillance imposed on him by the Court of Salerno.
The same false certification was used so that the pizzeria management company could unduly obtain non-repayable grants and state-guaranteed financing for 32 thousand euros, exploiting the regulatory provisions of the Covid 2020 emergency decree for measures to support companies in difficulty.
The speed of the investigations, however, prevented the organization from progressing in this practice of illicit "self-financing", obtaining further guaranteed disbursements for approximately 90 thousand euros already requested from two separate credit institutions.
The credit lines were frozen during the investigation.
The proceeds of the criminal activities, according to what emerged from the investigations, were reinvested in Florence and Nocera Inferiore, in the Salerno area, self-financing the new local Camorra clan, but also supporting the associates, still present in the territory of origin and involved in a feud with a rival clan from 'Piedimonte'.
The numerous reprisals between the clans - whose violent episodes materialized on Christmas Eve 2020 and in the first months of 2021 - also affected the Florentine area. The members of the opposing group, in fact, sent Sabato Mariniello and Luigi D'Auria to Florence, who on the night of February 23, 2021, detonated two firecrackers near the pizzeria. An episode that caused serious social alarm in the Florentine community. But at that time the Cuomo family was already monitored with environmental and telephone interceptions and the two 'guaglioni' of the rival clan who carried out the attack were identified and followed by the Carabinieri and the traffic police on their way back to Nocera Inferiore.
The two, while fleeing, had an accident in Barberino del Mugello – reported by the highway police – and fled, returning to Nocera Inferiore.
Among the businesses that the Cuomo brothers had organized was also that of illegal immigration. According to the accusation, they would have attempted to illegally procure the entry into the national territory of non-EU citizens, through the undue exploitation of the legislation of July 2020 (DPCM 7 July 2020 and related implementing Circular of 12 October following on the subject of migratory flows).
Forty citizens, coming from Bangladesh, who would have had to regularize, declaring that they had a stable domicile in Florence – in reality the houses were not at the disposal of the clan – and that they would have worked at their restaurant or as carers. The business would have consisted in asking each of them 1.500 euros for each fake hiring practice.
The gang had access to over a hundred copies of identity documents of non-EU citizens, preparing false employment contracts that indicated, as the presumed place of performance of the work activity, either the pizzeria or other Florentine commercial establishments, with the sole purpose of allowing compliant entrepreneurs to submit applications.
The character. Michele Cuomo is believed to be the head of the criminal organization. A prominent figure in the criminality of Nocera and Campania. Capable of giving orders even from prison - thanks to a cell phone - and for whom in the last release that took place at the end of 2020 in Nocera Inferiore there was a celebration with the explosion of fireworks. Just like you do with real bosses.
His arrival in Florence to coordinate family and clan took place on December 18, 2020 and there too, right in the restaurant Pizza, cozze e babà, a new party was held. And from there, from Firene, criminal activities and reprisals against rivals in Campania were coordinated. Like the one last July against Sabato Mariniello, one of the bombers, beaten bloody and ended up in hospital with numerous fractures.
Article published on 10 September 2021 - 15:58
