Castellammare, the municipal administration's 'red carpet' for the Allestilux company.

There's a common thread running through the second dissolution of the Municipality of Castellammare di Stabia for mafia infiltration: the frightening and almost automatic ability of certain economic operators to "freeze" during periods of extraordinary administration, only to reawaken with increased vigor as soon as politics and ordinary administration once again cross the threshold of Palazzo Farnese. This is the emblematic case of "Alestilus Srl," a company based on Via Tavernola and specializing in plant engineering and equipment rental.

Already recalled and highlighted in the previous prefectural report that led to the dissolution of the city council, after having received ten tenders from the Public Works Sector between 2018 and 2020, eight of which were awarded directly, Allestilux had been literally "wiped to zero" by the Extraordinary Commission: zero contracts, zero interventions, zero public funds.

But the return of the elections, the inauguration of Mayor Luigi Vicinanza, and the resumption of political and administrative management were enough to restart the carousel of direct contracts. Between December 2024 and October 2025, the company managed to secure direct contracts from the municipal system worth a net €143.802,93. This financial flow was always managed by a single responsibility center: Sector IV – Technical Area, led by engineer Catello Gargiulo.

But who is really behind this business acronym, capable of navigating judicial storms, the dictates of the local Camorra, and the preferential lanes of the city hall?

The convicted "superintendent" and the company's family tree

On paper, Allestilux Srl appears to be an ordinary limited liability company: the sole director and 50% shareholder is twenty-seven-year-old Salvatore Castellano (born in 1997), while the remaining 50% of the shares are registered to his mother. However, a simple search of the Argo and Infocamere databases reveals the figure the Prefectural Commission clearly defines as "substantially central and dominant": Alfonso Castellano (born in 1968), the director's father and the partner's husband.

Despite handing over the position of sole director to his son in July 2017, Alfonso Castellano remained firmly in control of the company in his role as "head of technical management." His personal profile, meticulously outlined by law enforcement in their report, paints the portrait of a man with a history of unscrupulousness:

Police Record : Already reported in 1985 for outrage, resisting arrest and violence; in 1994 for forgery; in 1995 for theft.

Energy theft at the Villa Comunale : In 2011, he was caught and reported by the municipal manager Donatangelo Cancelmo for having, together with his brother-in-law Vincenzo Aiello, made an illegal connection to the municipal public electricity line to power the gazebos of their company installed in the Villa Comunale.

Financial crimes and corruption : Reported by the Guardia di Finanza in 2020 for undue inducement to give or promise benefits; already implicated in 2015, again with his brother-in-law Aiello, in an investigation by the Torre Annunziata Prosecutor's Office for bid-rigging in Pompeii, relating to a tender in which their company was the only bidder.

The family and criminal network spread like wildfire around the company. Brother-in-law Vincenzo Aiello had several reports of insurance fraud and a serious criminal complaint from the Pompeii Police Station in 2014 for the illegal installation of Christmas lights under the signs of the former "Castellano Sas" company.

Even more serious is the situation of Alfonso Castellano's son-in-law, Gianluca Martinelli (his daughter's husband). Martinelli—convicted on appeal in 2018 for assault and possession of illegal weapons, and charged in 2024 for repeatedly driving without a license—is formally registered during local checkpoints in the company of high-ranking members of the Castellammare di Stabia mafia elite, including Luigi Ridosso (with a criminal record for mafia-type association), Francesco Capriglione, and Salvatore Tramparulo. Nonetheless, as confirmed by law enforcement, Martinelli was regularly employed as a "de facto" laborer on the Allestilux construction sites.

From the clan's "online" to the fast track in the Municipality

What makes the Allestilux case a prime example of mafia infiltration is its location between two fires: the extortionate pressure of the Camorra and the uncontrolled generosity of public bodies.

As revealed in the investigation coordinated by the Naples DDA, the lighting company had ended up directly in the crosshairs of the D'Alessandro clan. Wiretaps captured by the Trojan horse used by affiliate Antonio Salvato and phone bugs on Michele Abbruzzese ("O' Paciariello") had documented a period of intense friction: from prison, boss Vincenzo D'Alessandro (referred to in conspiracy dialogues as "the Cousin" or "the Uncle") had issued a strict diktat to exclude the Castellano company from installing lights outside the bar, the gang's regular haunt.

Entrepreneur Alfonso Castellano, terrified of having run afoul of the Scanzano clan, was desperately trying to reconnect. And the clan's men quickly came up with a solution: the company had to be "brought into line." The affiliates had planned to allow Allestilux to work at a discount on some private contracts, then show up promptly in December to collect the hefty Christmas extortion "quota."

But while the clans regulated access to the private market with violence and threats, the Municipality of Castellammare opened the doors to public money.

With Management Decision No. 2304 of December 2, 2024, Sector IV approved the direct assignment to Allestilux Srl for the rental, installation, and maintenance of the city's Christmas lights and trees for a net amount of €104.735,74. Less than a year later, on October 24, 2025, with Decision No. 2507, the same Technical Sector directly assigned Allestilux the service of setting up electoral boards and cleaning and sanitizing polling stations for the Regional Elections of November 23 and 24, 2025, for an additional €39.067,19 net.

The polling station procedure, managed on the "Tuttogare" platform, is a caricature of a public tender: despite a formal invitation also sent to two other companies (the "La Piramide" cooperative and "Verdino Group Srl"), Allestilux was the only economic operator to submit a bid, winning the package without any discount or real competition.

The mystery of the "White List" and the "blind" verification filter

Faced with the very serious preliminary findings, the municipal administration's defense took refuge behind a bureaucratic cover: Allestilux Srl had been registered on the Naples Prefecture's White List since October 27, 2023.

This argument, however, was dismissed by the Prefectural Commission, which deemed it completely inadequate to "neutralize" the critical issues. The documents show that on October 25, 2024, Allestilux filed an application to renew its registration with the Prefecture due to a change in family structure. That investigation was officially pending and not concluded.

Just thirty-eight days after submitting that request—and precisely while the Prefecture's anti-mafia investigations were underway—the Municipality of Castellammare signed the first large-scale contract worth €104 for Christmas lights, quickly followed by the second contract for polling stations.

As the commissioners emphasized, the change in family structure was not a neutral detail: it directly affected the Castellano-Aiello family, Alfonso's criminal record, the connections of his son-in-law Martinelli, and the extortionist practices detected by the wiretaps. Proceeding with direct contracts without exercising any "enhanced precautions" toward a company that had already been dissolved for mafia-related reasons demonstrated a "structural and culpable lack of legality."

Tax evasion and anti-mafia legislation: the contract that couldn't be awarded

While the anti-mafia profile appears seriously compromised, the investigations carried out by the Guardia di Finanza Support Group strike a fatal blow at the administrative regularity of the contracts.

Finance police discovered that Allestilux Srl was in serious and permanent tax evasion. For the 2023 tax year alone, the company had failed to pay periodic VAT payments totaling €10.538,92. The Revenue Agency had already notified the irregularities pursuant to Article 54-bis in January and April 2024, which have become final and no longer appealable.

Pursuant to Article 94, paragraph 6, of the New Procurement Code (Legislative Decree 36/2023), failure to pay definitively assessed taxes and duties exceeding €5.000 constitutes grounds for automatic and mandatory exclusion from any public tender.

Simply put: the Municipality of Castellammare could never have awarded the 2024 lighting contract to Allestilux. The agency violated the law by failing to conduct mandatory preventive checks on tax debts pursuant to Article 48-bis.

Only in July 2025 will Allestilux obtain an 84-payment plan from the Revenue Collection Agency. This "debt novation" transformed the exclusion from automatic (Article 94) to non-automatic (Article 95) for the subsequent 2025 polling station tender. But even in this second case, with a deferred debt exceeding €35.000, the Municipality's contracting authority completely failed to perform the required discretionary assessment of the company's fiscal reliability.

The "Castellano Method": Illegal Lighting and the Shock at the Romeo Menti Stadium

The unscrupulousness of the company's management is documented by an unmissable chain of episodes of blatant illegality:
The illegal installation of December 6, 2025: Just twelve days before the regional elections—and with the municipal contract for the polling stations already secured—a Local Police patrol caught Salvatore Castellano and worker Gianluca Martinelli installing LED strings on the facade of a shop on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. When asked by the police, Castellano produced only the receipt for a SUAP application filed that same day! He was issued a ticket no. 75016M for violating the Highway Code and was issued a warning to restore the premises due to the completely illegal installation.

The escape from the "Romeo Menti" Stadium: Allestilux had long provided audio and sound services for SS Juve Stabia Srl's Serie B matches. The city stadium's supply chain (from ambulances to tickets to steward services) was impacted by Decree No. 195/2025 of the Court of Naples, which ordered the football club's judicial administration due to the pervasive infiltration of the D'Alessandro clan. On October 13, 2025, the day after the installation of the State-appointed Judicial Administrators, Allestilux sent an emergency communication announcing its immediate withdrawal from continuing to provide audio services. This sudden withdrawal was seen by magistrates as evidence that the company could and would only operate in the absence of legal and transparent safeguards.

Polling station disaster: police in freezing cold and without water

The company's inadequacy and the complete failure of municipal oversight were evident in November 2025, during the regional elections. The outcome of the contract awarded to Allestilux for the installation and cleaning of polling stations turned into an administrative and hygiene debacle.

On December 2, 2025, the Castellammare State Police Commissioner sent a harsh protest to the Municipality. Police officers assigned to guard the polling stations reported degrading and unacceptable housing conditions starting at 15:00 PM on November 22.

Failure to clean and completely sanitize school premises;

Camp beds and cushions delivered in indecent hygienic conditions;

Lack of heating in the buildings and malfunctioning heaters;

Dirty bathrooms, broken locks and fixtures, total lack of hot water;

There is even a lack of keys to securely lock the polling stations.

The police statement succinctly summarizes that Allestilux "was completely unable to cope with the burden of the tasks entrusted to it, causing serious inconvenience to both the scrutineers and the police."

But that's not all. A few months later, in March 2026, during the referendum and the new contract formally won by another company ("Ruotolo Service Srl"), the Municipal Police and the RUP discovered that Ruotolo was an empty shell: the vans and equipment had all been rented from the same Allestilux, Salvatore Castellano personally managed the collection of materials from the fruit and vegetable market, and among the workers busy assembling the booths was once again Gianluca Martinelli, a convicted felon, completely without a contract. Faced with a fait accompli, the company sent a surreal certified email claiming that Martinelli "was just a resident passing through who was helping the workers maneuver among the flower boxes."

The entire Allestilux affair embodies all the ingredients of Castellammare's institutional collapse: a family-run business caught between the dictates of the Camorra and the pursuit of contracts; a municipal Technical Department awarding over €140 in direct contracts without even checking tax debts; and elected officials rehabilitating those who had been isolated by state commissioners. This symptomatic and devastating overall picture has convinced the government to once again dissolve the municipality for mafia-related reasons.