OPERATION “SERPE”

The Operations Centre in Padua, following investigations based on reports filed by entrepreneurs who stated they were victims of usury and extortion committed by subjects claiming to be members of the CASALESI clan, has identified a criminal association active in the Veneto region. This association caused huge economic damage to many natural and legal persons through activities that were initially confined to abusive loan practices and later turned into usury and even extortion.
On 14 April 2011, investigations ended in Padua, Vicenza, Naples and other Italian cities with the execution of 29 arrest warrants issued by the G.I.P. (Judge in charge of pre-trial investigations) in Venice, at the request of the Padua District Anti-Mafia Directorate, against as many subjects believed to be responsible for Mafia-type conspiracy – the Mafia element being an aggravating circumstance – to commit crimes including usury, extortion, abusive financial practices and other offences against 134 entrepreneurs in the regions of Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Lombardy  and Sardinia.