The Court of Palermo - Prevention Measures Section, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor's Office, issued two seizure decrees pursuant to anti-mafia legislation against entrepreneurs belonging to a corporate group adjacent to the mafia families of Pagliarelli, Porta Nuova, Palermo Center , Brancaccio and Noce, carried out by the financiers of the Provincial Command of Palermo.
The reconstruction carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office - DDA, accepted by the judges of the Prevention Measures Section of the Court, is based on the results of the investigations carried out by the specialists of the Economic - Financial Police Unit of Palermo - GICO as part of the operation called "ALL IN”, which would have provided a clear demonstration of the systematic search for economic power by “Cosa Nostra” which had infiltrated the lucrative sector of game management and sports betting.
In particular, the investigations would have outlined the existence of a group of companies gravitating around the central figures of a subject of ancient and undisputed mafia lineage and of colluding entrepreneurs who made available to the main Palermo mafia districts, in a relationship of mutual advantage, their skills to acquire the availability of numerous state licenses and concessions issued by the Customs and Monopolies Agency for the exercise of bet collection, up to the creation of an "economic empire" made up of companies formally registered in the name of "front men", which over time had come to manage gaming volumes of around 100 million euros.
The results of the detailed investigative activity had made it possible to carry out, in the months of June and November 2020, personal precautionary measures against 25 subjects, investigated in various capacities for participation and external collaboration in a mafia-type association, fraudulent transfer of values ( with the aggravating circumstance of having favored Cosa Nostra), criminal association aimed at aggravated fraud and the abusive exercise of gaming and betting activities.
For these events, the main suspects, including the recipients of today's seizure measures, have already been convicted with a sentence of the Court of Palermo dated 7 February 2022, confirmed by the Court of Appeal on 20 July 2023.
On the basis of the further in-depth economic and patrimonial investigations carried out by the Fiamme Gialle of Palermo, the Court found the elements to qualify the proposed candidates as socially dangerous subjects to be recurrent, since with their illicit conduct they would have provided an extremely important contribution to the strengthening of Cosa Nostra, allowing it to achieve widespread and widespread control of the gaming and sports betting market.
Therefore, in consideration of the systematic and constant situation of inequality between legitimate sources of income and assets in their respective availability detected in respect of the proposed applicants and their relative families, the seizure of the following assets was ordered:
– 3 properties, including a particularly prestigious villa located on the island of Favignana;
– capital shares and company summaries of 11 companies, based in the provinces of Milan, Rome, Salerno and Palermo;
– 45 financial relationships, consisting of current accounts, deposit accounts, securities deposits, insurance policies and postal vouchers, for a total value of approximately 43 million euros.
The action that the Palermo Financial Police carries out continues, as part of the investigations delegated by the Palermo Public Prosecutor's Office, to combat assets of illicit origin with the dual aim of radically disrupting criminal organizations through the attack of wealth illicitly accumulated and to free the legal economy from the infiltration of criminality, allowing honest entrepreneurs to operate under a regime of fair competition.
It is highlighted that the measures in question were issued on the basis of the elements currently acquired and that, therefore, pending the final judgment, the presumption of innocence exists.
