In Castellammare di Stabia, convincing a businessman to pay isn't just a matter of guns. A few lit candles around his house are enough, a sinister symbol that speaks for itself.
This is how the D'Alessandro clan continues to impose its law of terror, as emerges from the latest investigation by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate, which led to eleven arrests.
Among those under investigation is Massimo Mirano, 56, better known as 'o maccarone, the group's key figure in the Cicerone neighborhood. Wiretaps nail him as he describes the criminal logic with disarming ease:
“Everyone pays because they’re afraid of being shot,” he says over the phone, referring to the victims of the racket.
The demands for protection money and the threats
According to police reports, Mirano allegedly demanded €3.000 from a construction contractor working on Via Roma in Castellammare. This sum, at the direction of the clan's leaders—Antonio Salvato and Francesco Abbruzzese—was later increased to €4.000.
According to investigators, the money was then withdrawn by another member of the clan, who has not yet been identified.
The investigation also reconstructs another episode: an extortion demand of €10.000, later reduced to €2.500, against an engineer—the father of a female magistrate—whose home was surrounded by funeral candles lit as a message of intimidation.
The man lived “at the Scanzano crossroads”, a hilly area of Castellammare where the clan controlled contracts and construction sites.
The intercepted conversations
Wiretaps reveal the group's members' confidential and confident tone. Mirano discusses with an accomplice the seizure, on October 16, 2024, of a gun and €70.000 from the home of Antonio Salvato, a trusted man of the D'Alessandros.
During the conversation, the interlocutor links the seizure to the possible complaint of an extorted entrepreneur—“the engineer with his magistrate daughter”—and recalls the episode of the candles under the house.
Here is an excerpt from the dialogue, reported in full in the documents:
Man: "The engineer up there is looking after his daughter, who's a magistrate... they came to light the candles on the ground around the house."
Massimo: «And they extorted him?»
Man: "Well, those with ten thousand took two thousand five hundred... I think he even gave them to them, because he's taking care of his daughter, who's a magistrate."
Massimo: «Everyone pays.»
Man: "Everyone pays."
Massimo: "Because they're afraid of getting their asses pounded."
A crude language, which tells more than a thousand proofs of the systematic intimidation, the clan's domination and the belief in impunity of its members.
Mirano's role in the clan
Investigations reveal that Massimo Mirano played an active role in the D'Alessandro group's extortion activities. He, investigators explain, approached the victims, assessed the size of the construction sites, and calibrated the demands for money.
In another wiretap, Mirano complains about the behavior of an entrepreneur – known as “the flatfoot” – who “made appointments and then couldn't be found.”
Mirano himself, it appears, later turned to drug trafficking, complaining that he earned too little from the racket.
A system that has lasted for decades
The D'Alessandro clan, born between the late 70s and the early 80s, continues to exercise widespread control over Castellammare and the surrounding municipalities.
The new generations of affiliates – according to the prosecution – apply the same rules as the old godfathers: intimidation, violence and fear.
The symbol of the funeral candles lit under the victims' homes is just the latest evolution of an ancient criminal strategy: that of transforming the city into a moral cemetery, where any refusal to comply with the clan is paid for with fear.
Comments (1)
The article is very interesting and highlights the dynamics of organized crime. It's important for society to become aware of these phenomena, but I wonder if there are effective solutions to combat them. Fear seems to be a key factor.