Mother to son: "Leave the clan. I don't want to come to the cemetery to mourn you."

Bari – It's the call a clan doesn't expect: the mothers of some young members of the Bari clans are tearing through the veil of silence and publicly urging their sons to leave the criminal world. Not only that, but one of them is turning her son over to the police to "save" him from the threats of her rivals.

The mother of Gabriele Muserra, the young man shot in the leg on the night of April 14th in the Libertà neighborhood of Bari, has put her face and name on the line. And in front of her wounded son, she made a public appeal: "Get out of this. Now it's gone well, next time you can go to the cemetery. I'm convinced of that, and I don't want to go to the cemetery to cry."

The ambush on Muserra occurred a few days after another raid against Antonello Sinibaldi, carried out in the same manner, in the Carrassi district of Bari on April 9.

For the two incidents, the investigating judge ordered the pre-trial detention of Antonello Strambelli, 33, and Ignazio Raggi, 21.

Even the identification of the alleged culprits was dictated by maternal instinct. On May 4, it was Raggi's mother who reported to the police that her son was the target of death threats and showed investigators a TikTok post featuring the young man with the caption: "I don't think I'll make it to San Nicola, I'll be drilled (riddled, ed.) first."

This morning, Raggi and Strambelli were jailed for assault and possession of a firearm, crimes aggravated by mafia methods. According to the Antimafia Directorate, they allegedly shot the two victims as part of an internal feud within the Strisciuglio clan over control of the Carrassi drug market.

The crucial details that led to the identification of the alleged perpetrators of the attacks and the crucial role of courageous mothers on opposing sides emerged today during the Bari DDA's public disclosure of the operation. Deputy Prosecutor and coordinator of the Bari DDA, Giuseppe Gatti, commented on the role of mothers, saying, "It is a sign of innovation, of an important change."

It's no coincidence, she explained, "that the protagonists are women, mothers, that is, people bound by a bond of love and special affection towards their children." "We have signs in which these mothers are asking for help," she concluded, "in which, in some way, they are trying to convince their children to change their ways, to understand that the mafia's logic is a logic of death, a logic with no future."

"To this mother who told her son Gabriele: 'Get out of this. Get a job,' I want to say that her cry is not destined to go unheard. And to Gabriele I want to say: 'Listen to your mother. You still have a choice.'" This is what Chiara Colosimo, president of the Parliamentary Anti-Mafia Commission, wrote to X regarding the appeal that the mother of Gabriele Muserra, who was shot in the leg on April 14 in Bari, reportedly made to her son in an attempt to dissuade him from associating with organized crime.

"Today, with the Free to Choose law, there is a real possibility of building a different future. The embrace of the mafia brings only violence, prison, and death," he emphasizes. "The state is ready to lend you a hand. Choose freedom. Choose life."