AEven after the most difficult years, the Mazzarella clan has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for persistence and adaptation, maintaining control over the Market and expanding its influence.
Even after the two-year period 2004-2005, the Mazzarella clan has maintained its dominance in the Mercato area of Naples, as emerged from recent investigations by the Court. A position of power that was particularly evident during the clash between the Misso and Turin at the Sanità in 2006, two groups with which the Mazzarellas had criminal agreements, especially in the drug market.
It was the one who reconstructed those tense moments Michelangelo Mazza, collaborator of justice, He recounted how, between late 2005 and early 2006, tensions between the two clans nearly escalated into full-blown war. "There wasn't enough time to fully understand the Mazzarellas' position," Mazza explained, referring to the fact that investigators' arrests nipped the escalation of violence in the bud.
The suspicious neutrality of the Mazzarellas in the Misso-Turin clash
But one thing was clear: the children of Gennaro Mazzarella, unlike the Sarno, had no intention of openly siding with the Misso, maintaining a neutrality which however aroused suspicion.
One episode in particular fueled doubts: themurder of Graziano, brother-in-law of a cousin of the Missos, which took place at the Market, in the house of Francesco Mazzarella. An event that made one think of a betrayal, as he testified in court Joseph Misso, according to which Francesco Mazzarella secretly supported the Turin family, breaking the alleged neutrality.
The 2006 Pizzeria Summit
To complicate the picture, the testimony of the collaborator Antini, who told how Luciano Sarno had urged the Mazzarellas to support the Missos. To discuss the issue, between February and April 2006, a meeting was held meeting in a pizzeria, in which leading members of the Mazzarella family took part, including Frank Mazzarella with his trusted Totore Maggio e Roberto Mazzarella, together with his men from San Giovanni a Teduccio. And then Mario Mario, Scopetta, Francesco Ravolo, Antonio Marro known as Tonino o' Cecato.
A choice that, in reality, concealed a strategic calculation, typical of the criminal diplomacy of Neapolitan clans, always ready to shift alliances as convenience dictates. A story that demonstrates how, in the Camorra's underworld, no position is ever truly neutral.
The unchanged presence post-2006
Despite the imprisonment of its historic leaders, the Mazzarella clan continued its criminal activity in the Market. According to statements by collaborator Salvatore Esposito, released from prison in 2007, it emerged that characters gravitating around the figure of Alfonso Criscuolo – including Gioacchino Cantore, Raffaele Quaranta, Pasquale Migallo, Vincenzo Di Giuseppe, Umberto Costagliola, Ciro Varriale – managed the Market area, coordinated even by the mother of the Mazzarella brothers, with even more aggressive methods.
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(pictured is Franco Mazzarella and former informant Luciano Sarno, who died in 2018)
Article published by Giuseppe Del Gaudio on July 29, 2025, at 07:59 PM
Giuseppe Del Gaudio, a professional journalist since 1991. A lover of action films, sports, and South American culture. His motto: "Work is good, not working is tiring."
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