Boscoreale – “You work and you have to pay us”. Thus, in an intimidating tone and via video call from the Poggioreale prison, the extortion demand would have arrived from two alleged racketeering affiliates, who demanded 50 thousand euros from the owner of a tobacconist’s in Boscoreale.
One of the two was detained, the other acted as an intermediary outside. Both were reached by a precautionary custody order in prison issued yesterday, with the charges of attempted extortion aggravated by the mafia method. For the detainee, there is also the charge of illicit use of a cell phone in prison.
The facts date back to February 14, 2025. According to the reconstruction by the Carabinieri of the Boscoreale station, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples, Salvatore Ciro Crescentini, 20 years old, had shown up at the tobacconist's with a pretext.
Once outside, he asked the owner to listen to “an embassy”. At that point, he started a video call from his cell phone: on the screen would appear Nunzio Della Ragione, 38, detained in Poggioreale, and another inmate yet to be identified.
The message was unequivocal: "You work and you have to give us the money." The sum requested was 50 thousand euros, to be paid in two installments: 25 thousand immediately and the remainder the following day. Otherwise, the threat: "We'll shoot you in the legs."
On February 16th, fire at the tobacconist's
Two days later, on February 16, theintimidation it would have turned into an arson attack: the tobacconist's shop was set on fire. Surveillance cameras in the area captured two young men, with their faces covered, dousing the entrance to the business with flammable liquid and setting it on fire, before fleeing. The fire has not yet been formally charged to the suspects, but the act has reinforced the intimidating picture reconstructed by the investigators.
The arrests of Della Ragione and Crescentini represent a new alarm on the phenomenon of extortion orchestrated even from inside prisons, thanks to the illicit use of electronic devices. A context in which the mafia method continues to exert pressure on the local economic fabric, attempting to impose itself with the force of fear.
Article published on 13 June 2025 - 06:23
The situation is truly alarming and makes reflects on how the mafia manages to exploit technologies. It is incredible that detained people can still communicate and threaten. More controls and decisive interventions are needed to stop this spiral of violence.
It is truly worrying that in our country there are still people who use so violent methods to get money. The situation seems more and more serious and the authorities must do something more to stop these illegal activities.
I don't understand how it is possible that all this is happening so close to us. The police should be more vigilant and prevent such events before they happen, not after.