The six members of the Camorra group led by 62-year-old former Cutoliano Michele Aria, operating in the Caserta municipality of Teano, have all been sentenced by the court of Santa Maria Capua Vetere.
The elderly boss received ten years in prison, his sons Armando, 42, and Michele Jr., 35, received eight years and four months and five years and eight months in prison respectively; the judges then sentenced the other defendants, namely Paride Corso, 37 (eight years), Francesco Faella, 61 (seven years and ten months) and Lorenzo Corbisiero, 53 (seven and four months).
The defendants were charged with extortion aggravated by the Camorra method, possession of instruments capable of offending, personal injury, attempted violence and threats. The six were arrested on June 20, 2020 by the State Police - Caserta Mobile Squad - during a blitz coordinated by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate.
On that occasion, a seventh suspect, 44-year-old Salvatore Salerno, who chose the abbreviated trial and was already sentenced to five years in prison in recent months, also ended up in handcuffs.
The investigations revealed that Michele Aria, a former associate of Raffaele Cutolo, had taken over the reins of the Casalesi clan in the Teano area, upper Caserta, and moved around the area with his two sons and Salerno, the latter believed to be the contact person in Teano for the Papa clan, a gang historically federated with the Casalesi.
The group imposed its own “law” and that of the Casalesi on the territory with violence; this emerged from the episode of the car dealer who was the victim of extortion, whose business the group tried to set on fire when the entrepreneur stopped paying the extortionate installment. The economic operator, the investigations found, paid 300 euros a month to Aria, but at a certain point he could not take it anymore.
The suspects asked him to settle down by paying three installments of 1500 euros, the entrepreneur started to pay but then had to stop. Thus began the threats, then the intimidating acts and the beatings; the dealer, forced to rent the cars to the suspects for free, was beaten with baseball bats in front of the customers. The extortionists then removed the cameras to avoid being identified.
The victim, summoned by the Flying Squad that was already investigating Aria's group, reported the facts. The investigators then discovered two other extortions committed by the group, including one against a dog breeder.
Article published on 26 January 2023 - 17:23
