Naples. Forty-eight people investigated, including 36 in prison, 10 under house arrest and two banned from residing in Campania.
These are the numbers from the investigation by the Naples prosecutors focused on the cartel known as Secondigliano alliance and the satellite groups that have gained control of the hospital contracts in the Campania capital. The Alliance, which unites several clans with a variety of shared interests under the wing of the powerful, Licciardi, he expresses himself, as emerged from the investigations of the Naples Prosecutor's Office, with widespread, 'systemic' extortion.
Not those for small entrepreneurs and traders, but those that yield a 'pizzo' with several zeros, involving large business groups and public institutions. "A sophisticated system that permeates the control of all the city's hospitals," investigators say.
These were the statements of dozens of collaborators of justice to allow investigators to reconstruct a web of corruption and 'favours' between white-collar workers, businessmen and clans which allowed the mafia control of services related to the hill hospitals Since the 1990s, it has protected members with subsidized care, displayed power, and, above all, controlled the economic affairs and activities of companies involved in the management of Neapolitan hospitals.
The investigations focus on the Cimmino clan, the satellite group of the Secondigliano Alliance that collects money for the Licciardi clan in the hospital area. This investigation is linked to the one on Sma, an in-house company of the Campania Region. At the center, the figure of Andrea Basile, already accused of having asked for a 20 thousand bribe to an entrepreneur, who later admitted to having paid the 'pizzo' to the criminals.
The turning point came from environmental interceptions, which allowed us to listen live to how the group worked Vomero and how he managed business with other criminal organizations. The entrepreneurs sometimes play the role of victims of extortion, but other times that of colluding with the extortionists.
NAPLES HOSPITALS IN THE HANDS OF 8 CLANS
The Vomero neighborhood in Naples, according to Camorra informants, could not have belonged only to the local clans. There were the hospitals and the plot had to be well divided. Above all there was theSecondigliano alliance, but under the sign dozens of gangsEight clans are involved in the investigation by the Neapolitan prosecutor's office which led to around forty precautionary measures: in addition to the Licciardi, the Lo Russo, the Cimmino-Caiazzo, the Polverino, the Abate, the Saltalamacchia, the Frizziero, the Veneruso. Each of them collected money and poured it into the 'system'.
The economic and military power has always been that of the Licciardi clan and in particular of the group linked to the boss Maria Licciardi, already in prison. An example is reported in the order served this morning. John Caruson, an affiliate of the Lo Russo clan, in order to speak with Maria Licciardi, despite being a character of importance, had to stop at check point of Masseria Cardone. It had to be authorized.
TO TALK TO MARIA LICCIARDI YOU NEED TO GO TO THE CHECKPOINT OF MASSERIA CARDONE
And so it was also when Caruson went to greet Maria Licciardi's husband as a sign of respect, Antonio Teghemie, released from prison a week earlier; he let him in, but reiterated his orders to remain in line with the Licciardi directives.
They illegally controlled the economic activities related to the management of hospitals Cardarelli, Monaldi, Cotugno and Cto (belonging to the Colli company) andFederico II University Hospital Company through one "systematic extortionate pressure" on contracting companies, corrupting public officials and disrupting administrative procedures.
ANDREA BASILE WAS IN CHARGE OF EXTORTION AT NAPLES HOSPITALS
At the head of the association that was responsible for managing the extortions was Andrea Basile of the clan Cimmino-Caiazzo-Basile, who ended up in prison along with 35 other people as part of an investigation by the Naples prosecutor's office that led to the execution of 48 precautionary measures this morning.
The investigating judge of the Neapolitan court has also ordered the detention in prison of other members of the so-called Secondigliano Alliance, which brings together the main Camorra cartels of the city of Naples, including Luigi Cimmino, detained since 2016, Giovanni Caruson and Alessandro Desio who, together with Basile, "they adopted - these are the results of the investigations - the most significant decisions by planning the most appropriate operational strategies for increasing the clan's illicit activities, aimed above all at controlling public procurement in the hospital sector."
The recipients of the precautionary measures also include three employees of Romeo Gestioni, the company awarded the cleaning contract for the Cardarelli hospital, which had the role of 'spies', that is, they provided information to the Vomero clans regarding the companies holding contracts.
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Even ending up in prison Marco Salvati, de facto owner of the association for the transport of the sick 'Cross of Saint Pio', accused, among other things, of "contributing to the strengthening and expansion" of the Cimmino-Caiazzo-Basile clan. The same accusation was leveled at Joseph Sacco, owner of a company of the same name, which "systematically paid sums of money into the clan's classes following the awarding of each contract for the bar service in hospital facilities."
Le extortions they even hit the unauthorized parking: in the case of the Monaldi, they were forced to pay five euros a day as a bribe to carry out the activity, in addition to 150 per monthBribes were collected for food and beverage distribution and laundry services, or were demanded, through threats, from funeral home owners. The bribes were to be paid around the Christmas, Easter, and August holidays.
For the prosecutor's office of Naples the clan exerted "extortionate pressure on the companies contracting goods and services" for the Cardarelli, Monaldi, Cotugno, Cto, Aou Federico II hospitals, with episodes of corruption, indirect and through the investigated entrepreneurs, public officials those responsible for managing the award procedures for tenders for works and services, the fraudulent disturbance of the course of administrative procedures and the material and ideological falsification of the various documents.
Among the suspects there are also some hospital company unionistsThe partnership would have "distinguished for an activity of illicit control and disturbance in relation to the management of hospitals".
There is also a 400 thousand euro bribe for a contract in theCardarelli hospital A €47 million bribe from Naples is among the "systemic" extortions allegedly carried out by the Cimmino clan of Vomero. This emerges from the investigation into Camorra-conditioned hospital contracts and extortion of companies providing services in that sector (sick transport, funeral services, construction and cleaning companies) by the Flying Squad and the Naples District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office.
A bribe, however, which also highlights a "fibrillation" between the boss Luigi Cimminor, his son Franco Diego (both now recipients of a precautionary measure in prison) and some alleged members of the criminal group.
L'extortion would see the temporary association of companies composed of the What P and Co.Ge.Pa. awarded a large contract for the maintenance for the technological upgrade of six pavilions at the Cardarelli Hospital. The incident in the case file dates back to September 2017 and is based on a wiretapped conversation between high-profile suspects: Andrea Basile, Giovanni Caruson, and Alessandro Desio (all currently in prison).
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The latter, speaking to Caruson, complains that the money was taken by boss Luigi Cimmino. Desio tells Caruson about a meeting with the clan leader's son: "...he said his father was doing jail time and I told him that we too did jail time for Vomero (meaning the criminal group, ed.) and that his father shouldn't steal anything... I went to commit the crime too and I demand my money... I went there too when this job ended..." .
It's still "...they've already taken the money, Gigino (Luigi Cimmino, ed.) took it... around 400 thousand euros... do you understand?"
The investigating judge: "The hospital procurement sector constitutes the core business of all criminal gangs."
This is what emerges from the precautionary custody order signed by the gIP of Naples, Claudio Marcopido who led to the execution of 48 precautionary measures.
"The hospital procurement sector in the city," the ordinance states, "has always been a source of significant economic income for organized crime and constitutes the core business of all criminal groups that share the proceeds of extortion, to which essentially all companies awarded contracts, or in any case holders of the most varied contracts within hospitals, are subjected."
following the rules of the hierarchies in force among criminal groups. Essentially, the sphere of influence of the group operating in the territory with respect to the most important and influential Camorra groups to whom part of the proceeds is 'owed' in any case. Investigators emphasize how they are "The numerous and diverse statements of collaborators of justice, despite coming from diverse geo-criminal contexts, paint, over a broad period of time, the same, unequivocal, and extremely dramatic picture of the pervasive, suffocating, and, one might say, all-encompassing presence of organized crime in city hospitals."
