Also included among the 25 people arrested by the Carabinieri of Caserta is the 18-year-old Anna Varlese, as part of the investigation coordinated by the DDA of Naples, which led to the dismantling of a criminal organization that facilitated, through fake marriages, the entry and stay on Italian territory of clandestine and irregular foreigners.
For the woman, born in Naples, the investigating judge ordered the precautionary measure of house arrest. In June of last year she was arrested together with the footballer Marco Liccardi from Pozzuoli who played in the ranks of some football teams of Serie D and the Eccellenza championship in Zurich: in their suitcases, in fact, the police discovered a large quantity of heroin, 20 kilograms, which were destined for Holland.
A real “factory of fake marriages”, led by “aunt Maria”, the 61-year-old Matilde Macciocchi, already known in the news as the “witch of the betrothed”, allowed irregular migrants to obtain a residence permit: it was dismantled by the Carabinieri of Caserta, coordinated by the DDA of Naples, who notified 18 precautionary measures (5 in prison, 11 house arrest and 2 residence obligations) between Naples and Caserta. Overall, there are 66 people under investigation and over 40 sham marriages confirmed between 2019 and 2020, for a turnover of around 200 thousand euros.
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The gang, which also had branches in Avezzano, was led and composed mostly of women: 13 of those affected by the GIP's measures. At the top was Matilde Macciocchi, also known as "the blonde", a 61-year-old resident of the Ponticelli neighborhood - the operational base of the entire group - who ended up in prison with the factotum Antonietta Noletto and her collaborators Gennaro Di Dato and the two Moroccans Nabil El Hazmi and Hisham Metrache, responsible for finding immigrants, even in their country of origin.
Fake Wedding Aunt Maria pocketed between 5000 and 6500 euros from immigrants
Aunt Maria pocketed between 5000 and 6500 euros from immigrants (mostly Moroccans and Tunisians) in cash or via Western Union. In total, 25 Italian women, between 21 and 49 years old, married foreigners of more or less the same age; in some cases, only a promise of marriage was made, which is valid for 6 months, but still allows the foreigner to have a residence permit.
The brides were chosen from among girls who were often indigent, such as the sisters Jessica and Francesca Riccardi Catino, aged 27 and 29, or the 21-year-old Enrica Russo (who were placed under house arrest) who, like the other "brides", had multiple marriages, also appearing as witnesses for other marriages of convenience; Francesca Riccardi, who worked in a bar in Ponticelli, was married five times.
But cases of girls who were perhaps reluctant to get married also emerged: in a wiretap, Di Dato tells Aunt Maria that she “has everything ready” for the fake wedding, and is just waiting for the “bride”. “I’m going to pick her up” Macciocchi replies, explaining that she was forced to go to the girl’s house, a 22-year-old who was only under investigation, to convince her mother. The “brand of the criminal enterprise” managed by Macciocchi emerged not only from the wiretaps, but also from the analysis of the documentation for the residence permit sent by the migrants, in particular, to the Police Station of Castel Volturno, a town on the Caserta coast where many thousands of irregular foreigners live; the agents themselves noticed that the documents were falsified.
“Everyone knows me, from Milan to Naples,” the woman assured. Speaking to another interlocutor, however, 'Aunt Maria' gave him advice on how to handle the citizenship procedures: “They must give you a residence permit right away because you are the father of an Italian child, born right here in Italy.” While for her cousin, 'Aunt Maria' proposed the solution of a fake marriage: “If you want it, I'll send it to you tomorrow… I'll come to Milan the day after tomorrow… with him” and “don't worry about the price, we'll sort it out.”
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In fact, some foreigners, as stated in the precautionary order, "have always indicated the same woman as their spouse" and, furthermore, "all the requests were made with a postal kit presented in most cases at the Cercola post office, the pre-printed forms were all filled out by the same hand and the residences, often coinciding, all fall in Mondragone. At least five fake brides have repeatedly married clandestine immigrants.
Article published on 13 October 2022 - 07:26
