In Sicily and Calabria the Carabinieri of the Messina Provincial Command have implemented precautionary measures issued, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor led by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia, against 86 people accused in various capacities of mafia-type association, extortion, exchange electoral political mafia, fraudulent transfer of values, illegal possession and carrying of weapons, fire, association aimed at drug trafficking, detention for the purpose of drug trafficking, exploitation of prostitution, with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method.
The blitz is the result of an investigative activity – conducted from 2018 to date and coordinated by the Messina District Prosecutor – on the mafia family of the “Barcelonaese”, historically rooted in the municipality of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, capable of exercising a constant attempt to infiltrate entrepreneurial activities and lawful economy, both in the marketing of fruit and vegetables (through the acquisition of companies in the name of nominees or by imposing, with the mafia method, the supply of products), and in the business of nightclubs on the Tyrrhenian coast. The clan imposed on the discos, with violence and intimidation, the security services and intervened to condition the owners of the premises in the management of their activities.
The investigation also confirmed how strong the pressure of the racketeering on entrepreneurs and traders and the interest of the clan in the historic drug business is still strong.