A political and judicial earthquake is shaking Santa Maria a Vico, in the Caserta area. In the early hours of the morning, the Caserta Financial Police, acting on orders from the Naples Court's preliminary investigations judge, executed a precautionary detention order against six people.
Mayor Andrea Pirozzi, Deputy Mayor Veronica Biondo—a Forza Italia candidate in the upcoming regional elections—the majority city councilor Giuseppe Nuzzo, and former councilor Marcantonio Ferrara were placed under house arrest.
The judge instead ordered Raffaele Piscitelli and Domenico Nuzzo, considered top members of the Massaro clan, to be held in prison.
The charges, of various kinds, are very serious: political-mafia vote-trading, undue inducement to give or promise benefits, disclosure of official secrets, and personal aiding and abetting.
The investigation started in 2020
From cemetery work to electoral ties with the Camorra The investigation, coordinated by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office led by Nicola Gratteri and conducted by Colonel Nicola Sportelli, began in 2020, shortly before the municipal elections ultimately won by Andrea Pirozzi.
Already in the early stages, the Massaro clan's interest in the expansion of the municipal cemetery emerged. But as the months passed, wiretaps and investigative findings painted a more disturbing picture: a system of consolidated relationships between public officials and clan members.
Investigations have uncovered a secret electoral deal that allegedly allowed the Camorra to distribute voter pools to the mayor's list and, strategically, to a rival candidate as well. The latter was to be elected to the City Council to maintain a provincial office that served the criminal group's interests.
The wiretaps: "They already knew who would win."
Promises made to the clans in exchange for electoral support. Revealing statements emerge from wiretaps: clan members knew the election results in advance and announced to candidates the roles they would hold once elected.
A level of control and penetration of local power that demonstrates how deeply rooted the mafia organization was and how capable it was of influencing municipal politics.
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In exchange for electoral support, the clan allegedly obtained public works, contracts, and hiring. Investigators describe a "pact of mutual interest": votes and consensus in exchange for favors and management of public resources.
The crematorium and the "illegal" kiosk
Contracts and concessions as bargaining chips. One of the most significant points of the investigation concerns the construction of a crematorium adjacent to the municipal cemetery. The service, according to reconstructions, was to be entrusted to a company in which one of the clan's members was a hidden partner.
But that's not all: the criminal group allegedly managed to obtain a municipal concession to operate a kiosk-bar in the San Marco district, without paying any fees to the municipality. A kiosk that, moreover, should have been demolished due to serious building violations.
Piloted hiring and interest in trade fair areas
Investigators also discovered that pressure was exerted on an entrepreneur, the legal representative of a company that had won a municipal contract, to hire someone close to the clan.
At the same time, the Massaro clan's direct interests in the management of a municipal trade fair area have emerged. This project involved the adoption of specific regulations, which investigators believe some city councilors actively worked on.
The investigators' comment
A deep-rooted and sophisticated system of power
The words of those who followed the investigation leave no room for doubt: this is a system of widespread corruption and mafia infiltration that has undermined the credibility of local institutions.
A web of politics, business, and organized crime that—as investigators have highlighted—"doesn't just buy votes, but influences the administrative management of an entire territory."
The investigation represents yet another warning sign of the Camorra's ability to infiltrate electoral dynamics, influencing the choices and destinies of entire communities.
(pictured from top left: Andr Pirozzi, Veronica Biondo, Marcantonio Ferrara, Domenico Nuzzo, Giuseppe Nuzzo and Raffaele Piscitelli)
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