"Drugs, the streets, and the week": Carmine Grosso, a recent convicted felon, discusses the healthcare system.

The picture that emerges from Carmine Grosso's initial statements is that of a healthcare system riddled with shifting criminal relationships, alliances, drug supplies, and systems for enforcing territorial control.

This is a story from a man who, for years, has known the dynamics of the Neapolitan Camorra from the inside and who today, after his arrest in the raid last March, has decided to cooperate with justice.

Grosso, 61, identified in previous investigations as a member of the Misso group, was among those targeted in the March 3, 2026, major operation targeting gangs active in central Naples. During that investigation, precautionary measures were taken against 71 individuals, part of a broader investigation involving 81 suspects that had uncovered criminal activity in several city neighborhoods, including the Sanità district.

Now his move to the state's side opens a new chapter in the investigation. Three reports, drawn up between July and September and filed in the summary proceedings, allow the Naples DDA to compile an internal reconstruction of the relationships between the various groups.

The Savarese group and the Mazzarella side

The central point of the statements is the relationship between Salvatore Savarese's group, known as “'o Mellone”, and the circles linked to the Mazzarellas.

On September 11, Grosso was questioned by prosecutors Urbano Mozzillo and Maria Sepe. The questions focused primarily on the activities of the Savarese group and drug trafficking.

The collaborator says that the gang obtained supplies mainly from Salvatore Barile, known as “Totoriello,” who was indicated in the statements as a point of reference for the supply of narcotics.

«His group – Grosso reports – mainly dealt in drugs that they received from Salvatore Barile “Totoriello”».

The story, as reported by Cronache di Napoli, continues with another name: Salvatore Matrone, known as "Sasone." According to the collaborator, he was the one who brought the pre-packaged drugs to the Sanità hospital after receiving them from Barile.

Grosso points out that he also learned some passages from Gianluca Galeota, thus distinguishing between what he personally observed and what others reported to him. This is a procedurally relevant distinction, because a collaborator's statements must be verified and cross-checked.

Supplies, Pirozzi and the disruption of the balance

In Grosso's story there is a turning point linked to Vincenzo Pirozzi.
The collaborator reports that the supply system continued until Pirozzi's release. From that moment, according to his account, the balance of power changed.

"He told me he couldn't accept that situation and that he would have taken other measures to get supplies," Grosso stated to the prosecutors.

This development fits into the investigative framework outlined by the March investigation: the investigation documents reconstructed the progressive consolidation of the Savarese-Pirozzi group in the Sanità district and their ties to the Mazzarella cartel. According to the investigation's reconstruction, the alliance was not merely formal, but had concrete implications for the management of drug dealing hubs and territorial control.

The same investigation had documented, according to investigators, an armed presence in the neighborhood and a series of clashes with rival groups. Investigative cameras allegedly captured armed men patrolling the alleys of Sanità, while wiretaps recorded conversations regarding the availability of weapons.

The pre-packaged drugs arrived in the alleys

Grosso then goes into detail about the logistics of the drug.
He talks about a man named Gabriele, who allegedly arranged for the drug to be delivered to the Sanità district. His name, in the collaborator's statements, appears as another link in the distribution chain.

"The drugs were then delivered to the Sanità district by a certain Gabriele," Grosso claims, explaining that he saw him frequenting the neighborhood until Pirozzi's arrest and his subsequent placement in a workhouse.

The picture that emerges is that of a supply chain in which the narcotic substance would have arrived pre-packaged, passing through multiple parties before reaching the sales outlets.
And it is precisely here that the collaborator's story takes on a particular investigative significance: it does not limit itself to indicating alleged suppliers, but attempts to describe the economic structure of the system.

"Systematic": the price of drugs and the "week"

Grosso, in fact, speaks of the sale of cocaine to the owners of the various drug dealing centers.
The drugs, he explains, were sold "systematically," that is, according to a mechanism in which the price did not only represent the cost of the substance.

To that price was added the "week", a sum that the manager of the square would have to pay to the System in order to continue carrying out the drug dealing activity.

This is one of the most significant elements of the report because it describes the Camorra not only as a drug dealer, but as a structure that claims to regulate the black market by imposing a form of taxation on individual markets.

And the mechanism, according to Grosso, would have worked even when the system was unable to guarantee the supply.

«When the system couldn't supply the drug markets, it only asked for the week's payment».

In other words, the fee would have been due regardless: the commercial risk would have remained with the market manager, while the System would have been entitled to payment simply for being able to operate in the controlled territory.

The names of the “Mellone” team

When the prosecutors asked him who was part of Savarese's group, Grosso provided a sequence of names.

He names Gianluca Galeota, “Sasillo”, Vincenzo Peluso son of “Cicciobello”, Gennaro De Martino, Amodio and Salvatore Matrone, specifying that, according to him, all except Savarese frequented Barile.
"Basically, he was in charge at Sanità because these were his boys," the collaborator says, referring to Barile.

This sentence, in its version, captures a precise balance of power: on one side, the Savarese group, and on the other, a party considered central to the management of supplies. This data will naturally need to be compared with other investigative findings.

Among the names cited by Grosso are people already involved in the proceedings stemming from the March raid. The list of suspects in the investigation includes, among others, Gianluca Galeota, Carmine Grosso, Salvatore Matrone, Vincenzo Peluso, Vincenzo Pirozzi, and Salvatore Savarese.

A criminal career that began long before the latest investigation

Grosso's criminal history, however, does not begin with the 2026 operation.
His name has been implicated in organized crime in the Sanità district for many years. In 2008, when he was 43, Grosso was the target of a criminal proceeding as part of an investigation into the Misso clan. His name was among those implicated in the investigation into the Sanità district feud between the Misso group and the group linked to Salvatore Torino.

In the same investigation, his name also emerged in connection with the murder of Mario Ferraiuolo, killed in Naples on May 15, 2001. According to reports at the time, Grosso was listed among the alleged perpetrators of the crime. This is a historic judicial charge that must be distinguished from the charges and elements of the 2026 investigation.

Even before the Vastarellas

Even further back in the criminal trajectory reconstructed from the statements of justice collaborators is the relationship with the Vastarella clan of Fontanelle.

Collaborator Rosario De Stefano, who had been a member of the group, identified Carmine Grosso, nicknamed "'o Cecat," as a member of the gang, specifying that he later joined the Missos. According to his reconstruction, Grosso was responsible for extortion, armed actions, and supplying drug dealing centers.

De Stefano himself also recounted a particularly violent episode: according to his version, Grosso was attacked in the Sanità district by some members of the Vastarella family between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016, after his passage in the Misso area and following disagreements with members of the family.

The story thus retraces a trajectory marked by changes of sides, internal wars, alliances and subsequent recompositions, in a territory in which the criminal balance has changed several times.

The old role in the Misso machine

Another element emerges from a previous judicial reconstruction relating to the affairs of the Misso clan.

In a court document posted online, Grosso is listed as one of the men who, along with Mariano Mirante, allegedly took over the management of the drug proceeds after Giuseppe Misso's arrest in 2003. This refers to the management of the proceeds of criminal activities, specifically drug trafficking.
This detail, when read together with the new statements, reveals a significant continuity: the theme of drugs and the economic management of criminal proceeds runs through several phases of Grosso's career.

His name also appeared in previous investigative reconstructions on the internal relationships within the Misso group and on the dynamics of the Sanità system.

The transition to the side of the State

Now, years after the first legal proceedings in which his name appeared, Grosso has decided to cooperate with justice.

The collaboration is part of the investigation stemming from the March operation, which once again shed light on the criminal activities at the Sanità hospital and the connections between the Savarese-Pirozzi group and the Mazzarella cartel. The statements made between July and September may therefore represent a new source of information for investigators to verify through wiretaps, documentation, previous statements from other collaborators, and evidence already acquired in the investigation.