FIGHT AGAINST MAFIA ASSETS: THE DIREZIONE INVESTIGATIVA ANTIMAFIA IN CATANIA CONFISCATES ASSETS FOR A TOTAL VALUE OF 3,000,000.00 EUROS

The Direzione Investigativa Antimafia in Catania, carried out an asset confiscation order issued by the Court of Catania – Prevention Measures Section, against a entrepreneur operating in the plastics trading sector and in the collection of non-hazardous waste in the province of Ragusa.

The entrepreneur had been already convicted for drug trafficking and involved in several investigations of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Caltanissetta (concerning a mafia-type organisation aimed at committing extortion against agricultural entrepreneurs, on whom the collection of exhausted plastics from greenhouses and the guarding service were imposed). In October 2019, he was arrested upon order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Catania, since, taking advantage of the intimidating power of the mafia-type organisation to which he belonged and of the consequent condition of subjugation and “code of silence”, he managed to monopolise the collection of disused plastics from greenhouses in the province of Ragusa, imposing on greenhouse growers the exclusive delivery to a single company.

The addressee of the confiscation measure arranged his economic activities with the support of high-ranking members of the Carbonaro-Dominante clan, hegemonic in the Hyblean hinterland and part of the mafia organisation known as ‘Stidda’, which has been operating in the mentioned territories since the 1980s.

Investigations disclosed that this criminal group, among its many illicit activities, has been attracted by the flourishing plastics recycling sector used in agriculture, polluting the economic fabric with an outright monopoly position.

The Court of Catania – Precautionary Measures Section positively assessed the elements provided by the DIA and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, deeming the social dangerousness to exist and endorsing the economic-financial-accounting analysis carried out by the DIA  in Catania which succeeded in proving and documenting a marked disproportion between the income declared by the entrepreneur and his family unit and the assets accumulated over the years.

Three companies operating in the plastics trade and in the collection of non-hazardous waste, five real estate properties and two motor vehicles have been confiscated and administered by the Court, through a specially appointed judicial administrator. The assets subject to confiscation are valued at approximately 3,000,000.00 euros.

Catania, 08 March 2024