In Castellammare di Stabia, death had become a business. Ambulances operated by a company with a reassuring name—New Life—carried deceased patients home, pretending they were still alive. All it took was a form, a signature, and the complicity of those who turned a blind eye in the corridors of San Leonardo Hospital.
A cynical and well-tested mechanism, which served to bypass municipal controls and to guarantee the D'Alessandro clan the monopoly on the transport of the sick and deceased.
The operation was dismantled by the Torre Annunziata Carabinieri under the coordination of the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate, which today ordered the seizure of the company and five precautionary measures.
According to investigators, New Life ambulances, formally independent but effectively controlled by the clan, transported patients who had already died in the hospital home, pretending they were still alive to circumvent municipal regulations.
The rules, in fact, stipulate that only authorized funeral homes can collect the bodies. But the Camorra had found a shortcut: "resurrecting" the deceased and transporting them as if they were still undergoing treatment, thus turning death into a source of profit.
The arrests: front men, relatives and clan loyalists
Five people are under investigation. Those arrested are Daniele Amendola, 45, a businessman and front man belonging to the notorious "cape e fierro" family, and Luigi Staiano, 37, nephew of the late godfather Michele D'Alessandro, as he is the son of Maria D'Alessandro.
Under investigation are Antonio Rossetti, 53, known as 'o guappone, the man behind the New Life company—a prisoner under the 41 bis regime and a historic figure in the clan—, Giuseppe Di Lieto, 32, and Pasquale Esposito, 50, son-in-law of boss Luigi D'Alessandro.
They are accused of fraudulent transfer of assets, unfair competition and attempted extortion, all aggravated by mafia methods.
In reality, behind the apparent private company, there was a clan enterprise, which controlled the entire 118 emergency service and medical transport network.
How the scam worked
The rule, in theory, is clear: only funeral homes authorized by the municipality can collect bodies from hospitals.
But the clan had devised a way around it. When a patient died, New Life men would fill out false documents, making the person appear to be alive when they were transported.
So the body left the hospital in a private ambulance, complete with siren and flashing lights.
A simple and profitable scam
Between April and July 2021, investigators documented at least three cases, but justice collaborators Valentino Marrazzo and Pasquale Rapicano said there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of "ghost trips."
Each floor of the hospital had a "contact person": someone who alerted the clan when a patient was dying. From there, the rounds of calls and the rush of the New Life, the "new life" that began after death, began.
The ambulance empire
Controlling the emergency medical service was a multi-million euro business. The clan's ambulances received reports for private transports, emergencies from hotels on the coast, and transfers of serious patients, as well as for the care of the deceased.
Competing firms were systematically threatened or forced to withdraw from tenders.
Those who refused to step aside faced reprisals or sabotage. As emerges from the 150-page precautionary order signed by investigating judge Federica Colucci, the D'Alessandros had created a mafia-like monopoly that transformed the healthcare system into a network of economic power and social control.
Connections with other businesses
From wiretaps and testimonies, it emerges that the same group aimed to expand its control beyond the hospital.
One incident in particular raised alarm: the attempt to impose a refreshment service inside the Romeo Menti stadium, home of Juve Stabia.
Luigi Staiano was in charge of it, and he allegedly threatened the security manager to obtain the contract.
This move confirms the D'Alessandros' entrepreneurial strategy: diversify, entering wherever there is public money or social visibility—from healthcare to sports.
The voices of the repentants
The silence was broken by the collaborators of justice. Marrazzo and Rapicano described in detail the role of the hospital representatives and the methods used to "prepare" the fake transports.
“Every floor had a contact,” one of them said. “When a patient deteriorated, they called them. It was a matter of minutes. The ambulance would leave and arrive before the doctor even signed the death certificate.”
A perfect criminal machine, fueled by complicity and silence. And by a brand: the silent terror of the D'Alessandros, the Camorra that enters hospitals and deals with death.
The paradox of “new life”
On paper, New Life was supposed to mean rebirth. In reality, it was yet another face of a mafia system that feeds on the pain of others.
The name promised hope, but behind it there was dirty business, fake corpses and real power.
Another page in D'Alessandro's empire, where even death becomes a commodity and Castellammare remains prisoner to its Camorra, which never truly dies.
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