Camorra and procurement, 13 arrests between Naples and the province

Nine arrests in prison and 4 under house arrest at dawn as part of an investigation by the Naples DDA (prosecutors Woodcock and Colonna Romano, deputy prosecutor Ferrigno) into alleged Camorra infiltration into public procurement and a system of corruption involving entrepreneurs, administrators and public officials between Naples and the province. Among the recipients were a senior regional manager and several politicians. The order of the investigating judge of Naples was notified by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza and by the Investigative Unit of the Port Authority-Coast Guard of Naples. A company seized.

The crimes contested, for various reasons, are mafia association, external competition in mafia association, corruption, disruption of tenders and awarding procedures, issuing invoices for non-existent operations and attempted aggravated extortion. Invitations to appear for preventive interrogation have been issued for another 18 suspects.

At the center of the investigation are the relationships between members of the Veneruso clan and entrepreneurs in the environmental and health sectors who, according to the investigators, would have benefited from the influence of the gang, contributing in exchange to its sustenance. The investigations concerned contracts and assignments in the municipalities of Volla, Casoria, Somma Vesuviana and Cercola, as well as procedures in the regional health sector and alleged corrupt agreements relating to the appointment of the coordinating commissioner of a service center for cooperatives. The investigating judge also ordered the preventive seizure of a company based in Volla. Searches were also carried out on 22 suspects and one person not under investigation.

An alliance emerges between the Camorra and business aimed at influencing public contracts, obtaining contracts and funding the clan's coffers from the investigation. The investigation concerns a real system centered on Vincenzo Pagano, known as «'a Cuppulella», believed to be the regent of the Veneruso clan, and the entrepreneurs Mario and Marco Langella, active in environmental and health services. All three are recipients of pre-trial detention in prison. According to the reconstruction of the investigators, shared by the investigating judge Emilio Minio, the relationship between the clan and the business group would have been based on an exchange of mutual advantages: the gang would have made its influence and ability to intimidate available to favor the Langellas' business, while the entrepreneurs would have guaranteed economic resources intended for the sustenance and strengthening of the criminal organisation.