A raid in the Traiano district saw Luigi Nocera among those arrested: he argued with Valda, causing the death of Francesco Pio Maimone.

Naples – The Traiano neighborhood awoke at dawn to the roar of sirens and the constant overhead hovering of Carabinieri helicopters. It's the story of a suburb that knows no respite, where drug trafficking strongholds persist, regenerating like wounded hydras every time the old bosses return to tread the asphalt of public housing.

A mammoth raid, orchestrated by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command under the relentless direction of the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate, which literally decapitated the criminal galaxy of the Traiano district.

The operational balance sheet speaks clearly: thirty-one restrictive measures executed in one fell swoop, thirty suspects sent straight behind bars and one confined to house arrest, but also many suspects at large.

At the heart of the indictment erected by anti-mafia prosecutors is a highly developed and multi-faceted criminal holding company, the cartel headed by the Puccinelli and Petrone clans, capable of moving oceans of money through massive drug trafficking. Not just a simple criminal organization dedicated to drug dealing, but a veritable economic war machine that managed hundreds of retail outlets, transforming courtyards and basements into open-air drug supermarkets.

Shadows of Blood: From Mario Palma to Francesco Pio Maimone

Among the cells opened at dawn to welcome new arrivals, the judicial police records and the reports of crime reporters note important names, old acquaintances, and faces already sadly familiar to the courtrooms and the city's darkest news pages.

The first name that stands out is Massimo De Solda, a thirty-year-old from the Traiano district. He faces one of the most serious and outrageous charges: aggravated voluntary manslaughter. De Solda is believed to be the perpetrator of the brutal murder of a pensioner, Mario Palma, on November 19, 2024, in the nearby Loggetta area.

A massacre carried out with unprecedented and primal violence, culminating in a chilling autopsy: forensic experts found a total of 92 injuries on the elderly man's battered body. A blood-curdling detail, made even more disturbing by the family ties between the perpetrator and the victim, De Solda being the pensioner's nephew.

But on the list of thirty in prison, there's another profile that immediately evokes the ghosts of the most unscrupulous Neapolitan underworld: Luigi Nocera, twenty-three. A name that evokes the cursed night of the swarms of rain and lead rain on the Baretti di Mergellina, which cost the life of the innocent Francesco Pio Maimone. Nocera, nicknamed "Danger," is infamous in the news as the young man who, on that tragic occasion, accidentally stained Francesco Pio Valda's thousand-euro Louis Vuitton shoes with beer, sparking the mad brawl that ended in tragedy with that stray bullet at eye level, perhaps intended for him.

At the time, Nocera remained on the criminal sidelines of that specific execution. He was arrested the following year along with Pasquale Pisa for drug trafficking, and today, however, the case is being tightened again due to incidents related to his active involvement in the criminal networks of the western suburbs, having been caught guarding a protected drug dealing ring inside a basement on Via Tertulliano.

The map of drug trafficking and the names of the recipients of the ordinance

The investigation, coordinated by the Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) and endorsed by the investigating judge of the Naples Court, dismantles a sprawling system. Investigators have pored over months of wiretaps, field checks, drug seizures, and stakeouts in the alleys of the Traiano district, demonstrating how criminal syndicates are able to forge inextricable links between the management of drug dealing centers and the supply channels for cocaine, hashish, and marijuana.

A criminal network that resists raids thanks to a dense network of enforcers, lookouts, cashiers, and underlings ready to take over the hierarchy as soon as the historic bosses are arrested. The order executed by the Carabinieri provides a precise snapshot of this mafia galaxy.

Alphabetical list of those arrested

Attanasio Maurizio (Prison)
Borsella Pasquale (Prison)
Caiazza Emanuele (Prison)
Caruso Salvatore (Prison)
Giuseppe Chiantone (House Arrest)
Clear Paul (Prison)
Easter Cuccurullo (Prison)
Luigi Delle Donne (Prison)
De Solda Massimo (Prison)
Deviato Marco (Prison)
El Shabrawj Mario (Prison)
Gaiangos Giovanna (Prison)
Gheorghe Dumitru Nicusor (Prison)
Iuliano Salvatore (Prison)
Liguori Ivan (Prison)
Martino Antonio (Prison)
Nocera Daniele (Prison)
Nocera Luigi (Prison)
Ottiero Salvatore (Prison)
Palermo Stefano (Prison)
Pezzuti Raffaele (Prison)
Pisa Alessandro (Prison)
Pisa Pasquale (Prison)
Pistuggia Pietro (Prison)
Ricci Salvatore (Prison)
Sica Pasquale (Prison)
Tarantino Alfredo (Prison)
Tarantino Antonio (Prison)
Tranchese Simone (Prison)
Valenza Marco (Prison)
Volonnino Ciro (Prison)