Boscotrecase arrests young torturer for loan sharking with rates up to 800%.

Boscotrecase arrested: young torturer who practiced usury with interest rates of up to 800%: he was also charged with aggravated extortion.

The house arrest warrant with an electronic bracelet was issued by the preliminary investigations judge of the Torre Annunziata Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, following a complex investigation conducted by the Carabinieri of the Boscoreale Station.

The arrested man - already known to the police and considered to be connected to petty crime - allegedly lent money to a person in serious financial difficulty, unemployed and in need of immediate liquidity, demanding in exchange usurious interest rates of up to 370% per year, which in some cases even reached 800%.

A brutal loan sharking system, supported by threats and violence, which pushed the victim to report the crime after months of humiliation and fear.

The investigation and the evidence collected

The investigation, coordinated by the Torre Annunziata Public Prosecutor's Office, is part of a broader investigation that last November led to the arrest of a 59-year-old loan shark operating in the same area.

Through analysis of video surveillance images, technical interceptions, and financial consulting, Carabinieri investigators documented the flow of money and the payments extorted from the victim. The expert report unequivocally certified the usurious nature of the rates applied, well above the limits permitted by law.

The young man exploited the victim's desperation and his own criminal reputation, imposing impossible restitutions and resorting to threats whenever payments were delayed."

After completing the formal procedures, the 26-year-old was taken to his home and placed under house arrest with an electronic monitoring device.

 Usury, the hidden face of the crisis

The Boscotrecase case shines a spotlight on one of the most odious and silent scourges of economic crime: usury, a practice that continues to thrive in the most socially vulnerable areas, where desperation becomes a bargaining chip.

According to recent estimates from the Ministry of the Interior, loan sharking is a widespread and growing form of economic violence in Campania, especially since the economic crisis and the pandemic. Those paying the highest price are the unemployed, small business owners, artisans, and indebted families, who end up in the hands of those who turn poverty into criminal profit.

Camorra organizations, particularly in the Vesuvian area, have used loan sharking as a tool of social control: a way to establish themselves as "benefactors" in times of hardship, only to then strangle their victims with skyrocketing interest rates and violence.

The fear of victims and the courage of reporting

Behind the numbers are stories of loneliness and shame, people who often don't report for fear of retaliation or distrust of institutions.
Judicial authorities and anti-racketeering associations remind us that breaking the silence is the first step to escaping the yoke of loan sharks.

In Campania, the San Giuseppe Moscati Anti-Usury Foundation and the Italian Anti-Racketeering Federation (FAI) have been providing legal assistance and financial support to victims for years, collaborating with law enforcement to reconstruct the criminal networks that fuel this painful market.

"Usury is a modern form of slavery," explains a magistrate from the Naples Anti-Mafia Department. "Those who practice it don't just attack people's wallets, they also attack their dignity, holding them hostage to debt and fear."

An open wound in the social fabric

The arrest of the young man from Boscotrecase is just one step in a broader investigation, but it also represents a sign of hope for those fighting this invisible form of violence.
Behind the cold figure of 800% interest lies a reality of oppression, silence, and pain.

And, once again, current events demonstrate that usury is not just an economic crime, but a social scourge that undermines the very foundations of civil coexistence.