Lattari Mountains drug lords face 83-year prison sentences

A family organization capable of transforming Gragnano into a Campania drug dealing hub, supplied by the plantations of the Lattari Mountains and protected by a network of pushers, including minors.

This is the picture painted by the sentence handed down by the preliminary hearing judge of the Naples Court, Nicoletta Campanaro, who sentenced nine defendants belonging to the criminal gang led by Rossano Apicella to a total of 83 years in prison.

According to the District Anti-Mafia Directorate's indictment, supported by Deputy Prosecutor Giuseppe Cimmarotta, the clan ran a continuous trafficking network of cocaine, hashish, and especially marijuana, the so-called "paesana" of the Lattari, a very high-quality variety grown in the mountains and now one of the most sought-after products on the drug market in Southern Italy.

Apicella, the true drug lord of reference in the Gragnano area, continued to direct the organization even from prison, using a cell phone that allowed him to give orders and directives to his wife Rosaria Vitiello and his children, who had become a stable operational structure.

Their home on Via Volte had become the beating heart of the system: from there, instructions for sales, deliveries, and the management of pushers were sent.

During the investigation, which culminated in a raid by the Carabinieri and the Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) that dismantled the group and led to numerous arrests, hundreds of drug dealing incidents were documented, including home deliveries, confirming a well-established market capable of satisfying all demands in the area.

The “balcony throw” and the Nassiriya square

The sales method was as simple as it was effective. Drug dealing often took place through the so-called "balcony throwing," with doses dropped or thrown to customers directly from their homes, or in the small square dedicated to the fallen of Nasiriyah, transformed into a veritable open-air drug market.

The military also discovered drug caches scattered throughout the city, some of which were guarded by seemingly unsuspecting individuals, demonstrating a widespread and well-organized structure.

Minors at the service of the clan

One of the most serious aspects to emerge from the trial was the systematic use of minors as pushers. Young people were transformed into "little soldiers" of the drug trade, often recruited through threats or pressure, forced to sell drugs on the streets on behalf of the clan, exposing themselves to enormous risks and compromising their futures.

The connection with the Di Martino murder

Salvatore Pio Pennino, 24, was also convicted in the trial, and the judge sentenced him to one year and eight months in prison. Pennino is already incarcerated for the murder of Nicholas Di Martino, the 17-year-old stabbed to death in May 2020, a crime for which he is serving 18 years in prison. This connection reinforces the context of violence and illegality in which the drug dealing network operated.

The sentences

The most severe penalties were reserved for the organization's top leaders.
Rossano Apicella received a prison sentence of over twenty years, while his wife, Rosaria Vitiello, was sentenced to 14 years. Their children and other associates, found to be integral members of a drug trafficking conspiracy, also received heavy sentences.

With this ruling, the court brought to an end one of the most important anti-mafia proceedings in the Monti Lattari area, certifying that behind the "village" marijuana and the Gragnano market lay a structured family clan, capable of controlling the territory and fueling the death market in the heart of the province of Naples.