Secondigliano, a man who asks for a 'gift' from the clan ends up in a trap: Roberto Massaro arrested.

Naples – The lesson of prison wasn't enough. Just a few months after completing a four-year sentence for extortion, Roberto Massaro, a 50-year-old from Secondigliano believed to be close to the Cesarano clan, was arrested again. This time, he was arrested by officers from the "Falchi" section of the Naples Flying Squad, who intervened before his threat could be transformed into cash.

The request for the “gift” and the trap

The incident unfolded over the course of twenty-four hours. Last Wednesday, Massaro showed up at the office of a local civil lawyer, making a generic request for "protection money" in the form of an unspecified "gift."

No explicit amount was given, but an unmistakable tone and a peremptory warning: "I'll be back tomorrow to collect the money." The professional didn't lose his cool. He indulged the extortionist to buy time, and as soon as the 50-year-old walked away, he picked up the phone and called the State Police.

Undercover agents in the law firm

The next day, when the raid took place, the trap had already been sprung. Coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, investigators set up a discreet setup to avoid arousing the suspect's suspicions: a couple of officers sat in the waiting room posing as customers, while other officers patrolled the outside of the building and the street.

When Massaro announced himself to the secretary and entered the lawyer's office, reiterating his demand for money, the officers hidden a few meters away listened to every word. Having collected evidence of his repeated demands, they emerged and handcuffed him, charging him with attempted extortion aggravated by mafia methods.

The clan's precedents and the raid in the Kennedy district

Massaro's prison doors are once again opening. The 50-year-old had been released shortly after his 2019 arrest and final four-year sentence in 2021. On that occasion, he didn't act alone, but alongside other Cesarano associates—including two of the boss's sons—extorting protection money from shopkeepers in the Kennedy neighborhood. The operation was conducted at the time by officers from the Secondigliano police station and the Flying Squad.

Today, history repeats itself, but during the investigation (while presuming the suspect's innocence remains intact until a final conviction), the extortionist's arrogance clashed with the victim's courage and the promptness of law enforcement.