Naples. 140 suspects, 1000 pages of precautionary measures, 130 charges and 40 precautionary measures: this is the summary of the maxi trial of the Contini clan that begins the day after tomorrow in the Bunker courtroom in Poggioreale.
Contents
The preliminary hearing that opens on June 7 starts from the investigation of the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office, the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, in collaboration with the Central Service for the Investigation of Organized Crime and with the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate and issued by the GIP of the Court of Naples, for an alleged round of dirty money, according to the Investigators - coming from the Contini clan of the Secondigliano Alliance - laundered in businesses of the economic fabric of Campania and beyond.
The list includes members of the Contini clan, complacent entrepreneurs, front men, business intermediaries, for a dizzying amount of money that led the Carabinieri and the Finance Police to also carry out a series of seizures for a total of 8,4 million euros.
Eight years of investigations, for this line of investigation (there are 10 others) carried out through analysis of tax documents, tax audits, stakeouts, telephone and environmental interceptions, testimonies of injured parties and collaborators of justice, whose accusatory case was gradually completed with new investigations, interrogations and new entries in the register of suspects.
The crimes contested by the investigators are various: counterfeiting and marketing of watches with a counterfeit brand, fictitious registration of assets, undue compensations, fraudulent transfer of values, money laundering, self-laundering and reinvestment of large amounts of capital, issuing and use of false invoices, fraudulent declarations through other devices, false declarations, undue compensation, possession and trafficking of firearms, aggravated extortion, assault and attempted murder, all aggravated by the mafia method to favor the powerful clan of the Contini Clan of the Secondigliano Alliance (Mallardo and Licciardi).
The Festas had created a business/criminal group
According to investigators, he had turned himself in “a real business/criminal group made up of various companies operating in Italy and abroad created and/or purchased” da Anthony Feast, his son Gennaro Party e Salvatore D'Amelio, thanks to the collaboration of various professionals including Michael Tecchia all through “the fictitious and fiduciary imposition of numerous front men”.
Very high standard of living, investments in multiple economic sectors, and yet the members of the Festa Group were, according to investigators, “to lack a solid economic base.” The hypothesis is that the members of the group had managed to “create a dense network of companies registered under front names, into which the proceeds of various illicit activities, from counterfeiting to tax fraud, and consequent money laundering activities, flowed”.
Arms trafficking also included in the investigation
The final phase of this enormous criminal affair: possession and trafficking of firearms and extortion of the key intermediary SC, who according to the Prosecutor's Office was the recipient of extortion by men of the clan, threatened, beaten and stabbed for an investment gone wrong with the Festas and other members of the clan, before the covid era, with Chinese intermediaries. A real execution that was supposed to lead to his murder.
Among the various activities, according to investigators, the group also acquired 50% of the share capital of a clinic for autistics in the province of Campobasso, re-employing in the operation almost 3 million euro of illicit origin.
The defense team includes lawyers Arturo Cola, Gaetano Manzi, Giovanni Cerino, Vincenzo Romano, Claudio Davino, Massimo Viscusi, Domenico Vincenzo Ferraro, Gianluca Gambogi, Leopoldo Perone.
Article published on 5 June 2024 - 21:22
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