Naples: Sequino-Savarese clan's baby bosses sentenced

Naples – Armed checkpoints and ruthless surveillance on anyone who dared to pass through the area. The San Nicandro steps had become an impenetrable stronghold for young members of the Sequino-Savarese-Pirozzi clan.

From there, the organized crime syndicates of the Sanità district monitored every movement, including that of residents, sending an unequivocal message: the system's control of the territory allows for no exceptions or interference.

What the members of the gang didn't realize, however, was that their open-air domination was constantly under the scrutiny of investigators. For months, a microcamera cleverly placed by the Carabinieri recorded every move, capturing weapons, bullying, and gang strategies.

Painstaking intelligence work, coordinated by the Naples District Anti-Mafia Directorate, has dismantled piece by piece the facade of invincibility erected by this new and unscrupulous criminal axis, determined to secure its illicit business at the expense of its historic rivals, the Vastarella clan.

The December 2025 raid and the verdict: sentences exceeding the prosecution's requests

The axe of justice has fallen with inexorable force on the clan's new operational leadership. Preliminary Investigations Judge Federica Colucci has put a fundamental end to the investigation and the raid launched in December 2025, fully endorsing the prosecution's case constructed by DDA prosecutors Urbano Mozzillo and Maria Sepe and confirming the mafia-related charges for all the defendants.

The verdict handed down in the summary trial, as reported by Il Roma, left no room for discounts: in five cases, the sentences imposed by the court were even higher than those requested by the prosecution, a testament to the seriousness and social danger recognized by the gang.
The heaviest sentence was handed down to Ciro Esposito, who was sentenced to 8 years and 4 months in prison. Close behind was Ivan Zinzi, whose sentence was set at 7 years. The rest of the gang also received a heavy penalty:
Danilo Peraino: 5 years and 4 months
Salvatore La Salvia: 5 years
Alexander Babalyan: 4 years and 8 months
Francesco Pio Massaro: 4 years and 4 months
Luis Antonio Amodio: 3 years and 8 months
Gennaro De Marino: 3 years and 8 months

This is a very harsh set of sanctions that the defense team—which includes, among others, lawyers Domenico Dello Iacono, Leopoldo Perone, Antonio Rizzo, and Andrea Imperato—is ready to challenge in their appeal, aiming to minimize the responsibilities of the individual defendants.

From gang clashes to murder: the shadow of the historic center feud

Against the backdrop of this first and devastating judicial verdict lies the long trail of lead and blood that, between 2024 and 2025, stained the historic center of Naples. An unprecedented escalation of violence culminated in the dramatic shooting of October 2024, when fifteen-year-old Emanuele Tufano tragically lost his life in a head-on clash between the Sanità and Mercato factions.

That episode triggered a chain reaction of cross-party vendettas and deadly ambushes, which subsequently culminated in the murder of twenty-year-old Emanuele Durante. And it's no small detail that among those convicted today is the young Alexandr Babalyan, already arrested by investigators as the perpetrator of that crime.

Investigations have shown how the youths' use of social media was constantly intertwined with the criminal reality of the street: videos, proclamations, and group photos, when combined with footage from Carabinieri surveillance cameras, helped close the loop on a gang that thought it could transform the heart of Naples into an inaccessible fiefdom. Now, the clan has received its first real blow.

(in the photo the San Nicando steps and from top left Ciro Esposito o' macall, Alexandr Babalyan, Salvatore La Salvia “Sasill” and Luis Antonio Amodio)