Camorra "Capitoni" boss freed again: Giuseppe Lo Russo leaves the 41 bis regime and returns to Milan.

A criminal earthquake struck in Miano: the last historic boss of the "Capitoni" clan, Giuseppe Lo Russo, left prison and the 41 bis regime late yesterday afternoon.

The clan leader, detained continuously since 1998, was released from the Terni penitentiary pursuant to a ruling that recognizes his entire sentence as already served. This decision is likely to spark debate, not only on a judicial level but also regarding the criminal situation in the northern suburbs of Naples. The news was reported today by the newspapers Il Roma and Il Mattino.

Lo Russo, a leading figure in the historic “Capitoni” gang of Miano, had been identified for years by investigators as one of the most influential bosses in the northern area, protagonist of the long season of bloodshed between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s.

Over time, he received numerous convictions for mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking, and Camorra feuds, which had added up to a heavy series of sentences that made him expected to remain in prison for a long time.

Just last year, the boss was again sentenced to twenty years in prison, on a fast-track trial, for being believed to have ordered the murders of Angelo De Caro and Pasquale Bevilacqua, Camorra crimes which, according to investigative reconstructions, were part of the military's strategy of controlling the territory.

The sentence was later reduced to sixteen years following his waiver of appeal, but, on paper, it still seemed to further extend his prison sentence.

The turning point came with the execution request filed by his defense attorneys, Domenico Dello Iacono and Antonio Abet, supported by Andrea Lucchetta. The defense team argued that the last conviction for the De Caro-Bevilacqua double homicide had already been absorbed into the previous sentence, requesting that those sixteen years be counted towards the first total of thirty years of imprisonment. After a lengthy legal battle, initiated following the initial rejection of the request by the Prosecutor's Office, the lawyers' arguments were accepted.

Joseph Lo Russo He had been detained continuously from 1998 until early October 2023, when he was released from Novara prison after serving his sentence. But his freedom lasted only a few minutes: the boss was arrested again, as soon as he entered the prison gates, pursuant to a detention order issued by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate specifically for the De Caro-Bevilacqua crimes. Since then, he had remained in pre-trial detention, then serving his new sentence, still under harsh prison conditions.

Now, with the recognition that the sixteen-year sentence should have been included in the thirty years he had already served, Lo Russo's criminal status has been effectively annulled: the sentence has been fully served. The Miano boss, never repentant and always faithful to his policy of silence, is thus released, unlike his brothers Salvatore, Mario, and Carlo, longtime collaborators with justice whose statements have contributed to uncovering the structure, dealings, and murders of the "Capitoni" clan.

The release of a historic boss like Lo Russo now risks having significant effects on the criminal balance in the northern area of ​​Naples, where in recent years new groups and alliances have emerged, often leading to raids, ambushes, and feuds for control of drug dealing and racketeering hubs.

The release of the former boss could fuel tensions, attempts at reorganization, or clashes between the various factions, in an area already marked by fragile balances and a deep-rooted presence of the Camorra.

Law enforcement and the Anti-Mafia Directorate will closely monitor the movements and activities of the criminal underworld in Miano and the surrounding neighborhoods, aware that the release of a historic figure like Giuseppe Lo Russo represents a potential detonator of new scenarios of conflict and power within the Neapolitan criminal underworld.