THE DIA CARRIED OUT A CONFISCATION ORDER OF THE ASSETS FROM AN ENTREPRENEUR OPERATING IN THE SECTORS OF THE RECOVERY AND TRASFORMATION OF PLASTICS

Upon a joint proposal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Catania and the DIA Director, the Section Preventive Measures of the Court issued a confiscation order of the assets of Donzelli Giovanni, operating in the sector of the recovery and transformation of plastics in the province of Ragusa.

The judges recognized the elements contained in the proposal, both acknowledging the qualified social dangerousness of the entrepreneur (deemed to be close to the s.c. “Stidda” mafia-type association in the area of Vittoria since the 90s), and the disproportion between the official income and the accumulated assets.

The investigation took into account the statements made by a number of cooperating witnesses who declared that the person managed his business and his assets by re-investing the criminal proceeds stemming from extortion of the criminal group he belonged to. In the past, the group was hit by several police operations and was dismantled by a number of sentences, thus the man had entrusted his assets to unsuspected persons in order to re-invest it in apparently legal economic activities.

The entrepreneur, already convicted by a final judgement in 1994 by the Court of Assizes in Syracuse to 4 years in prison for participation in a mafia-type association, was detected again during other investigations of the Public Prosecutor’s office in Catania. The first ended in 2015 with the arrest of 17 persons, allegedly affiliates of a mafia-type clan operating in the province of Ragusa and liable, at different degrees, of multiple aggravated mafia-type association, aimed at extortion to the detriment of recycling operators collecting greenhouse plastic waste, as well as illegal trafficking in wastes and possession and carrying of common fire-arms. Pre-trial arrest orders were carried out in October 2019 against 14 persons liable, at different degrees, of multiply aggravated mafia-type criminal association aimed at the management of unauthorized waste and fraudulent transfer of assets with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method.

The confiscated assets of the entrepreneur were valued at over 5,000,000.00 euros including three companies operating in the sector of the collection and recycling of plastics, real estate and vehicles.

The operational result was achieved within the institutional activities aimed at fighting illegally gained assets and linked, directly or indirectly, to criminal contexts, thus protecting the healthy tissue of the national economic tissue.

Catania, 01 March 2022