Castellammare, a town colonized by clans: here's how the Vicinanza council surrendered to the gangs.

An administration that proclaimed a turning point and zero tolerance for the Camorra found itself, in the space of just twelve months, mired in the same quicksand of criminal influence, strangled by an unpredictable yet systematic network of cumbersome connections, complacent silences, and colossal bureaucratic loopholes.

This is the bleak picture that emerges from the nearly four hundred pages of the Final Investigation Report on the Municipality of Castellammare di Stabia, drawn up in January 2026 by the Access Commission, which subsequently led to the dissolution of the municipal council due to Camorra infiltration.

An indictment of rare severity which, chapter after chapter, x-rays the failure to restore legality in the Stalingrad of the South, revealing how the historic clans of the area - the D'Alessandros of Scanzano and the Cesaranos of Ponte Persica - continued to pull the strings of the city's political and economic life with disconcerting ease.

The illusion of legality and the trap of civic duty

When journalist Luigi Vicinanza took office as mayor of Palazzo Farnese in June 2024, supported by a broad center-left and civic coalition, the slogan resounded: "I will be the mayor of everyone, except the Camorra." The city had just experienced a two-year period of special administration, following the dissolution of the city council in February 2022 under the center-right government led by Gaetano Cimmino.

The conditions for a genuine break with the past seemed to be in place: the prior screening of the lists announced before the Anti-Mafia Commission, the support of anti-Camorra figures like journalist Sandro Ruotolo, and a strict code of self-regulation.

But the reality documented by the Prefecture's 007 agents and law enforcement agencies revealed a diametrically opposite picture. Beneath the cloak of thriving and improvised civic lists—the so-called "civics of convenience"—the same constituencies and faces closely associated with criminal gangs have crept in. Statistical and quantitative analysis of the vote conducted with the Gini Index revealed frightening peaks in consensus concentration in key constituencies: in Ponte Persica, a stronghold of the Cesarano family, the index reached a record 0,593 (compared to a citywide average of 0,207), while in Scanzano, the undisputed stronghold of the D'Alessandro family, it reached 0,363.

 The geometry of consensus

In the Ponte Persica district, councilor Pasquale D'Apice (brother of the late Luigi D'Apice, known as 'o Ministro,' convicted of mafia involvement with the Cesarano clan) drained 57,3% of his total 702 votes in just 5 out of 65 polling stations. After his resignation at the end of 2025, his incoming niece Gisella D'Amora (both in opposition with Progetto Stabia) had replicated the exact same pattern in the same stations (up to an incredible 56,3% of votes concentrated).

"One of the Family": Wiretaps that Imprison Politics

The investigative findings conducted by the Naples DDA and summarized in the major precautionary orders "Domino Ter" and "Cerbero" paint a picture of a city riddled with disturbing figures connected to crime.

One of the most sensational incidents involved former councilor Gennaro Oscurato (Stabia Rialzati list), caught on wiretaps while talking to Michele Abbruzzese, alias 'o Paciariello, cousin of the late godfather Michele D'Alessandro, as well as treasurer and leading figure of the D'Alessandro clan. The wiretaps revealed that Abbruzzese and his associates considered Oscurato "one of the family" who "made himself available" for municipal papers and jobs, celebrating his election and only regretting that he hadn't obtained a council position.

No less serious is the position of now-former councilor Nino Di Maio (Noi per Stabia), whose son Vincenzo (known as Zaccagnini) and grandson Nino Jr. have been identified as the drivers and insiders of clan leader Pasquale D'Alessandro. The Di Maio family business on Via Roma had become the boss's daily meeting place and logistical base for meeting with entrepreneurs and affiliates, acting as a veritable link between civil society and the Camorra network.

And the list goes on: from City Council President Roberto Elefante, a business partner in key companies with Catello Cacace (arrested by the Palermo Prosecutor's Office for a health care business committee), to Councilor Rosanna De Simone (elected mayor on the Mario D'Apuzzo list), closely linked through her mother to the Scannapieco family (with her cousin Biagio Maiello arrested in November 2025 as the alleged extortionist for the D'Alessandro clan), to the passing of the baton to long-time clan leaders in troubled neighborhoods.

The Ghost of Surveyor Schettino and Shared Passwords

While politics has proven permeable, thanks to councilors elected from Mayor Luigi Vicinanza's coalition, the Authority's bureaucratic machinery has proven to be a fortress without gates or guards. The Access Commission's investigation uncovered a practice as disconcerting as it was widespread: managers in key sectors (Public Works, Urban Planning, Environment, Finance) systematically handed over their passwords for the "Civilia" IT protocol and the OTP codes for digital signatures to secretarial staff or collaborators. This practice, justified to inspectors by the "need to expedite work," effectively impeded the traceability of documents, making it impossible to formally attribute the authority behind the measures. This also includes whether there was tampering by someone with access to the codes.

Anarchy in the Technical Offices: Managers' hearings confirmed that there was no visitor register or entry screening in the Technical Offices. City councilors, assessors, and private professionals, some of whom may have had ties to the clans, entered freely, questioning investigating officials to request or inspect classified files, often accompanied by technicians who had already been convicted or suspended.

A prime example of this short circuit is the case of surveyor Angelo Schettino. Named by witnesses as the technician "at the disposal" of the D'Alessandro clan—capable of passing secret documents on public procurement to the clan and managing the clan's construction practices—Schettino was officially suspended indefinitely from the Register of Surveyors on March 1, 2024.

The relevant notification from the professional association had reached the Municipality's registry that same day. Yet, for over fourteen months, that note remained dormant in the manager's "virtual desk" without ever being sorted or registered. The result? Schettino continued to freely roam the City Hall corridors, signing and submitting dozens of building applications, only being stopped in May 2025, when he was arrested by the Carabinieri in Operation "Domino Ter." And even after his arrest, some of his applications continued to "travel" to municipal offices for approval.

Below-threshold loans and the clan's influence on Juve Stabia

In terms of public spending, the Commission noted a pathological and uncontrolled recourse to direct contracts, systematically splitting amounts to keep them just below the EU and open tender thresholds. From the supply of waste sorting bags—which ended up in the hands of companies lacking anti-mafia requirements and linked to crime—to the installation of public summer beaches and cleaning services, the system of "below-threshold" contracts has become the cash machine for companies close to the Camorra system.

But the interference of the D'Alessandro clan has also crossed the borders of Palazzo Farnese to extend to the symbol of the city's passion: the football team SS Juve Stabia Srl

In October 2025, the Court of Naples ordered the Judicial Administration to impose a preventive measure against the football club. The investigation revealed the clan's pervasive influence in the strategic areas of security, ticketing, refreshments, first-team transportation, and cleaning of the Romeo Menti Stadium.

The pinnacle of this promiscuity was reached on May 29, 2025, during the public celebration in the square celebrating Juve Stabia's promotion to Serie B. In front of thousands of citizens, three ultra leaders who had been banned from participating in the game and identified by law enforcement as being close to the D'Alessandro clan—Giovanni Imparato, Michele Lucarelli, and Raffaele Di Somma—were welcomed onto the authorities' stage to present a plaque to a footballer, in the pleased presence of municipal administrators and with the approval of the mayor's staff.

A public endorsement by the municipal administration granted to the leaders of the criminal supporters' movement, from which the mayor dissociated himself only many days later, spurred by the wave of media outrage when the issue emerged publicly.

The political implosion and the surrender of the city

Overwhelmed by the mounting arrests, searches, and revelations from the anti-mafia investigations, the majority led by Luigi Vicinanza began to crumble in the fall of 2025. The series of resignations of key councilors, the belated expulsion from the group of councilors under investigation for Camorra ties, and finally the controversial resignation of journalist Sandro Ruotolo in December 2025—who denounced the administration's inability to act as a bulwark against the Camorra and the failure of superficial civic duty—marked the point of no return.

The final report drafted by the Access Commission concludes with a harsh diagnosis: Castellammare di Stabia has demonstrated a "persistent and insurmountable permeability" to organized crime interference, combined with a total lack of internal immunity. The dissolution of the city council and the convocation of the Extraordinary Commission for the second consecutive time in four years appear to be the only and inevitable remedy to free the city from the Camorra's suffocating control.