Castellammare, "I'll make you the queen of sales": the wiretaps that incriminate boss Carolei's loyalists.

Castellammare – A parallel economic empire born in the shadow of the Lattari Mountains, extending its ramifications from underground and online gambling to the commercial heart of the Sorrento Peninsula. A financial network comprised of very young front men, compliant accountants, and "shadow" partners already well-known in the judicial news, protected by the oppressive influence and intimidation of the D'Alessandro clan.

This is the map of power and money laundering outlined with extreme precision by the preliminary investigations judge of the Court of Naples, Giovanni De Angelis, in the pre-trial detention order that swept up the leaders of the Castellammare di Stabia criminal network. A complex investigation, conducted by the soldiers of the Castellammare di Stabia Financial Police Company and coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, resulted in the issuance of five prison sentences and the registration of six other individuals as suspects.

An investigation that captures a fluid yet widespread Camorra: on the one hand, high-tech investments and triangulated accounting to launder dirty money; on the other, predatory taxation of an archaic kind, ranging from Valentine's Day gift boxes imposed on bartenders to even banners celebrating Juve Stabia's promotion to Serie B.

The genesis of the investigation: the "ATECO code 920009" and the Lattari axis

The investigative activity stems from a specific tip-off to the Guardia di Finanza (Fiamme Gialle) of Castellammare di Stabia. A confidential source revealed how the D'Alessandro clan—historically rooted in Castellammare—was reinvesting and laundering criminal proceeds in the lucrative business of legal and clandestine sports betting and gaming machines.

An operation conducted in structural synergy with the Di Martino clan of Gragnano, sealed not only by economic interests but also by a family alliance: Fabio Di Martino (son of the boss Leonardo 'o Lione) is in fact romantically linked to the daughter of Paolo Carolei, 55, considered by investigators to be the co-ruler of the D'Alessandro clan.

To verify the tip, the financial police initiated a widespread monitoring operation. They X-rayed dozens of new VAT numbers opened between the coastal strip and the municipalities of Lattari under the ATECO code 920009 (lottery and betting-related services). The mechanism was as simple as it was effective: using "front" commercial activities (such as data transmission centers, internet cafes, tobacconists, or bars) to collect bets on parallel circuits or at foreign bookmakers without a TULPS license (Article 88) or authorizations from the Customs and Monopolies Agency.

Investigators immediately targeted "LODE BET Srls," with registered office in Gragnano and operations in Sant'Antonio Abate. The company's formal managers were two young men in their early twenties, but demographic checks revealed the identity of the two men: they were the sons of Antonio De Simone and Maurizio Lopez. Two prominent figures, already at the center of the historic "Golden Goal" investigation, and both closely linked to Paolo Carolei.

Over the course of three years, the company began aggressively expanding towards the Sorrento Peninsula, acquiring agencies in Sorrento and receiving four "SOS" (Suspicious Transaction Reports) sent by the Bank of Italy's Financial Intelligence Unit.

Wiretaps: Mafia Pax to Settle Debts and the Role of the "Advisor"

The exceptional evidentiary strength of the prosecution's case emerges from the combined use of bugs, environmental microphones, electronic monitoring, and cameras hidden in car interiors.
On March 27, 2024, investigators recorded a crucial investigative meeting at the home of Francesco di Paola Avallone, the Carolei mafia boss's right-hand man and factotum. The meeting was requested by Antonio De Simone and Maurizio Lopez. The two were on a collision course with the manager of a "Planetwin365" agency in Sant'Antonio Abate.

To avoid a significant portion of the debt accumulated for the acquisition of the facility, the manager allegedly tried to be "smart," threatening to have high-ranking relatives close to the Carolei group to avoid paying the debt.
Faced with this financial affront, Lopez and De Simone did not hesitate to appeal to the Camorra's "court of appeal": they called for the direct intervention of boss Paolo Carolei so that he could put his word and resolve the dispute through the force of intimidation of the clan.

Alongside the military and economic aspects, the order by investigating judge De Angelis meticulously reconstructs the role of white-collar workers. Among those targeted by the measures is accountant G. C., with an office in Gragnano. He is charged with aiding and abetting a criminal conspiracy.

In the confidential information collected by the Guardia di Finanza, the accountant is intercepted while suggesting the most suitable legal and accounting strategies to protect the agencies from potential judicial seizures or asset prevention measures. It is the accountant who encourages Lopez and De Simone ahead of an upcoming sales summit in Malta with the top management of the Planetwin365 brand, suggesting how to manipulate the financial statements to show higher revenue flows and promising:

“I'll take care of fixing everything with artificial accounting operations…”

Front man for a “thousand euros”: the boy of 2000 and the brands of the spider's web

When law enforcement attention on the "Lode Bet" group began to intensify, the system attempted a knight's move. On January 22, 2025, the company's shares were hastily sold.

The buyer is AA, a young man born in 2000. Financial and asset investigations by the Guardia di Finanza will reveal a paradoxical picture: the twenty-five-year-old, in the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, never filed a tax return and in the last three years had only received a few INPS benefits.

The young man took over Lode Bet – which the previous year had an official balance of over 65 euros – for the symbolic and paltry sum of 1.000 euros.

A fictitious sale "at a low price", useful only as a human shield for the financial prevention measures for the real owners of the business, namely Antonio De Simone (already convicted of mafia in 2007) and Maurizio Lopez.

The corporate web created by the De Simone-Lopez duo was impressive and included several Chinese boxes created to bypass the law, consisting of six companies in Gragnano, Sant'Antonio Abate, Sorrento, Castellammare, and San Marzano sul Sarno.

A widespread organization that also ran a massive phone and WhatsApp credit betting ring, moving huge sums of money artfully divided to avoid the anti-money laundering radar.
From big business to capillary lace: Valentine's Day boxes and the "Juve Stabia" party

But the D'Alessandro clan doesn't just thrive on high finance and IT platforms. Judge De Angelis's order paints a picture of obsessive, harassing, and pervasive territorial control, operated on the ground by Francesco di Paola Avallone and executed under the aegis of Paolo Carolei.

In January 2024, ahead of Valentine's Day, the clan decides to sponsor the goods of a local entrepreneur, Simona Coppola. Carolei herself requests a list of "customers to visit":
“Send me a list of all the bars…”

Avallone takes the list and begins a door-to-door extortion ring between Castellammare di Stabia and Sant'Antonio Abate: everyone is forced through mafia intimidation to buy the boxes of gadgets and sweets supplied by Coppola.

Intercepted while reassuring the woman about the success of the "work" in the territory, Avallone makes a resounding promise that betrays the monopoly logic imposed by the clan:
“Don’t worry… I have to make you the greatest representative from Sorrento to come to Castellammare!”

Even more surreal is the story involving the owner of a restaurant on Corso Garibaldi in Castellammare. In April 2024, the local football team, Juve Stabia, is on the verge of securing historic promotion to Serie B. The city is decked out for the holidays, but even the decorations must go through the clan's coffers.

Avallone noticed the restaurant and sent a fiery WhatsApp voice message to the restaurateur to force him to have the place furnished by a friendly company:
“Should we let this …omissis… live a little with these stripes or not?… This guy is putting stripes everywhere!”
For the restaurateur, there is no choice: the yellow and blue decoration is installed and paid for.

The boss's violations and the "notoriety" of the mafia connection

Completing the picture is the position of Paolo Carolei himself. The clan's leader, despite being under the preventive measure of Special Surveillance, requiring him to reside in the municipality of Castellammare di Stabia, systematically violated the regulations by imposing a busy schedule of meetings with individuals with multiple criminal convictions.

The Guardia di Finanza's shadowing documented summits and ongoing meetings between late 2023 and spring 2024 with Avallone, Michele Scannapieco, Massimiliano Sola, and Salvatore Amodio. These meetings were always aimed at managing extortion schemes and controlling betting shops.

In granting most of the precautionary requests made by the District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office, GIP De Angelis emphasized that the presence and presence of the D'Alessandro clan in the region is now a "notorious fact" in case law, attested by dozens of irrevocable convictions. This criminal organization, despite constant arrests and raids, manages to cyclically regenerate, combining the archaic violence of street extortion with the most modern techniques of accounting and corporate infiltration.

List of suspects

AA, 22 years old. UNDER INVESTIGATION
AVALLONE Francesco di Paola, 55 years old. PRISON
CAROLEI Paolo, 55 years old PRISON
COPPOLA Simona, 44 years old HOUSE ARREST
DSA, 26-year-old UNDER INVESTIGATION
DE SIMONE Antonio, 57 years old, under house arrest
FA, 27 years old UNDER INVESTIGATION
LOPEZ Giulio, 26 years old
LOPEZ Maurizio, 61 years old, under house arrest
R.R., 53 years old, INVESTIGATED
CG, 55 years old UNDER INVESTIGATION