DIA OPERATION IN SALERNO: ASSETS CONFISCATED FROM MEMBER OF CAMORRA CLAN

The Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, the Operations Office in Salerno enforced a confiscation decree issued by the Re-examination and Prevention Measures Section of the Court of Salerno, which became final on July 01, 2024, justified by a ruling of the Court of Cassation.

The proposal had been jointly made by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Nocera Inferiore and the Director of the D.I.A./Direzione Investigativa Antimafia. The purpose of the confiscation was to seize real estate assets worth more than two million euros belonging to Carlo MONTELLA, who is currently in custody at the Prison in Parma while serving several final sentences for the crimes of continued aggravated murder, camorra-type association, usury, extortion and other crimes.

The enforcement of the order represents the result of an extensive and complex investigation aimed at reconstructing the profile of social dangerousness of the person and identifying various real estate and other properties traceable to him. Considering the ascertained “qualified” social dangerousness of the person – resulting from numerous convictions for very serious crimes and from the enforcement of a previous personal preventive measure that remained unenforced due to the detention of the person concerned and to the fact that he was a top leader of the camorra clan “Tempesta”, the Court of Salerno – Section Re-examination and Prevention Measures ordered the confiscation of real estate and financial assets attributable to Montella, as these were allegedly proceeds of the illegal activities for a long time carried out by this person. It has to be stressed that this group was affiliated to the well-known criminal organization “Nuova Famiglia”, dominating the agricultural area of Nocera and Sarno. The order was subsequently confirmed first by the Salerno Court of Appeals on March 10, 2024 and finally by the Supreme Court of Cassation. The complex and extensive asset-related investigations carried out by D.I.A. investigators and analysts revealed a clear disproportion between the assets and the income of the accused and his relatives.

The prevention measure takes on a particular significance in view of the malingering activities carried out for years by Montella in order to avoid a number of criminal trials to which he should have been subjected since the late 1990s. In brief, MONTELLA for years simulated the existence of a psychiatric pathology resulting in a serious picture of cognitive deterioration. Moreover this disorder was confirmed by numerous forensic and psychiatric consultations and expert opinions. The defendant was also recognized as being in a state of procedural incapacity, which resulted in the postponement for years – only with regard to his position, which was for that reason excerpted – of the numerous trials for very serious crimes pending in the trial phase against him and his associates before the Salerno and Naples Judicial Authorities.

The results of even technical investigations (telephone and environmental wiretapping and videotaping) carried out by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Nocera Inferiore during the period of said acknowledged condition of inability to stand trial, radically denied the existence of the reported disabling condition, which was incompatible (as ascertained and also considered at the outcome of medical-psychiatric technical consultancy) with the concurrent criminal activities carried out by Montella, thus making it possible to resume the proceedings that had long remained suspended.

Since that time, there have been numerous convictions against the defendant for very serious crimes.

Neither the long periods of stagnation of the trails nor the time elapsed with respect to the crimes committed prevented the investigators from reconstructing in a timely manner the assets the defendant had and their illicit origin, gathered from the double requirement of social dangerousness and income incapacity.