Naples - The pair, leaders of a gang that defrauded elderly people across Italy, had hidden €30 in the legs of a table and in a drawer in their home in Melito. This morning, they were busted by the Carabinieri in a raid.
The police seized them in the home of Alberto Macor 'o mast and Marica Mastroianni, the boss, and then seized a gun from another home. It was from the couple's home that some of the calls to the elderly were made.
The call center was set up in a B&B on Via Nuova San Rocco, near the Bosco di Capodimonte. In addition to the two, the organization included 28 other accomplices. Twenty-one were jailed, five were placed under house arrest, three were ordered to report to the police, and one remains under investigation at large.
Last year, after the arrest in Genoa of one of the gang members, the couple commented that they could not understand the reason for such relentless targeting by the police of their "gang" compared to others, specifying that they were being pursued as if they were "drug traffickers".
Marica Mastroianni in fact said "I think that no gang of this thing (dedicated to fraud, ed.) is having like us, like... they have a relentlessness as if we were drug narcos... for four bullshit things... we are having too much relentlessness".
The leaders' complaints: "Too much harassment against us."
And in return, her husband Alberto Macor replied, "We've had five arrests in a month... five arrests in a month... five arrests in a month..." And the woman replied, "Oh, let's feel sorry for ourselves... at the first obstacle, we'll throw our profession down the toilet." And then her husband closed the discussion with a terse, "Come on... six arrests... is everything okay?"
In the 240 pages of the precautionary order signed by the investigating judge Milena Catalano, the gang's modus operandi is described in great detail, with the protagonists, the roles, the earnings and the people scammed in most cases in Northern Italy.
HERE ARE THE 30 INVESTIGATED
1.AIELLO Vincenzo, born in Naples, 41 years old; HOUSE ARREST
2.ALTIERI Antonio, born in Cercola, 46 years old; PRISON
3.ARNESE Nunzio, born in Naples 46 years old; PRISON
4. ATTANASIO Simone, born in Naples, 24 years old; HOUSE ARREST
5. BARBA Gianluca, born in Naples 33 years old, PRISON
6.BRISCI Carlo, born in Naples 38 years old; PRISON
7. CHIANTONE Enzo, born in Naples, 51 years old; PRISON
8. CHIANTONE Silvestro, born in Naples 23 years old INVESTIGATED
9. CIMMINO Franco, born in Naples 38 years old; PRISON
10. CRISTOFARO Jonathan, born in Naples 31 years PRISON
11. DE FILIPPO Vittorio, born in Naples 32 years PRISON
12. DE MATTIA Pasquale, born in Naples 39 years PRISON
13. FABIANO Gabricle, born in Naples 22 years PRISON
14. FORMOSA Antonio, born in Naples, 21 years old; HOUSE ARREST
15. GIOVANNIELLO Emanuele, born in Naples 27 years PRISON
16. GRANDULLI Giovanni, born in Naples, 62 years old; PG REQUIREMENT
17. GUIDA Antonio, born in Naples 36 years old; PRISON
18. MACOR Alberto, born in Castellammare di Stabia (NA) 32 years old, PRISON
19. MACOR Marco, born in Naples 39 years old, PRISON
20. MASTROIANNI Marica, born in Naples 31 years PRISON
21. PAGANO Pasquale, born in Naples, 39 years old PG OBLIGATION
22. QUATTROMANI Francesco, born in Naples, 24 years old PG MANDATORY
23. RAIA Carlo, born in Naples 47 years old; PRISON
24. SALTALAMACCHIA Antonio, born in Naples 24 years old; HOUSE ARREST
25. SCARANO Raffaele, born in Naples, 34 years old; PRISON
26. SQUILLANTE Giuseppe, born in Naples 34 years old; PRISON
27. TESTA Giuseppe, born in Naples 35 years old; PRISON
28. TRINCHELLA Pasquale, born in Naples 36 years PRISON
29. VITOLO Antonio, born in Naples 50 years PRISON
30. VITOLO Giovanni, born in Naples, 27 years old HOUSE ARREST
Comments (1)
It is incredible how such a large gang can operate without being stopped first. The police must be more careful in these situations. Defrauding the elderly is a truly despicable act and should not be tolerated.