CATANIA – Twelve people were arrested by the Catania carabinieri as part of an anti-drug operation: LOOK AT THE PICTURES. A precautionary custody order was issued against them at the request of the DDA which hypothesizes, for various reasons, the crimes of mafia-type association, association aimed at drug trafficking and drug dealing with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method. Two of the arrested appear to belong to the Cappello Bonaccorsi clan of Etna.
The group, according to the indictment, was selling hashish, cocaine and marijuana in Catania, Syracuse and Malta. The drug was imported from Albania, Holland, Calabria and Puglia. During the investigation, three men were arrested while they unloaded cardboard boxes with the brand of a well-known pasta manufacturer containing 242 kilos of hashish from a car. As part of the various stages of the investigation, called Alter ego, the carabinieri seized a total of drugs for an estimated value of about 5 million euros.
The investigations also made it possible to outline the role played by leading figures of Mafia families within the Etna criminal scenario, highlighting relationships, contacts and dynamics relating to the trafficking of large quantities of drugs and their supply.
The investigative activity originates from significant arrests and kidnappings, related to each other, carried out by the carabinieri in a short period of time in the summer of 2018. For example during a search in the house of Santo Sicali, called “Spaccatello”, in addition to more than 300,000 euros in cash and an agenda in which names, pseudonyms and numbers referring to drug trafficking were noted (so-called ledger), about twenty empty packs of Barilla pasta appeared. At that point the centrality of Sicali in the chessboard of drug trafficking was hypothesized, due to its ability to have simultaneous contacts with affiliates of mafia families, even opposing ones.
Sicali led an apparently regular life dedicated to family and horses (hence the name of the operation: Alter ego); at the same time it seemed to enjoy a certain autonomy and recognized reliability, acquired “in the field” thanks to the deemed ability to trade large supplies of drugs (cocaine, hashish, marijuana) through supply channels open in Italy and abroad, behaving like a real and its own “broker” capable of controlling prices, ensuring profits and quickly satisfying customer requests.
The Sant’Agata Village group (which at the state of the investigations appears to be made up of Antonino Battaglia, Antonino Sebastiano Battaglia, Gregorio Drago, Michele Fichera and Orazio Musumeci) was capable of placing on the market – often with the support of Sicali himself – large quantities of drugs of all kinds, in the order of hundreds of kilos, coming from Albania or Holland and destined to the Catania squares of their competence or sometimes to Malta. From the same interceptions it also emerged that the association seemed to guarantee economic maintenance and legal assistance to the relatives of the associates arrested in carrying out the illegal activities of the association.
Finally, by monitoring Sicali’s movements, the carabinieri managed to document close and parallel contacts with the representatives of other important drug dealing squares located in different areas of the city, with whom the suspect seemed to plan the sale of regular and large quantities of drug.
In particular, it seems that he had intensified relations with Nicolò Zagame, who would have inherited from his father the management of the Tondicello della Plaia shop. At the same time it was ascertained that Sicali also had illicit commercial relations with Alfio Castagna, considered a member of the Cappello-Bonaccorsi clan and manager of the historic Salette shop square in the heart of the San Cristoforo district.
These are the recipients of precautionary measures in prison:
BATTLE Antonino Sebastiano, born in 1993, (articles 73 and 74 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
BATTAGLIA Antonino, born in 1990, (articles 73 and 74 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
CAMBRIA Salvatore, class of 1971, (art.73 DPR 309/90);
CHESTNUT Alfio, class 1987, (articles 416 bis of the criminal code, 73 of Presidential Decree 309/90 and 416bis.1 of the criminal code);
DISTEFANO Giovanni Agatino, born in 1981, (Article 73 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
DRAGO Gregorio, born in 1990, (articles 73 and 74 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
FICHERA Michele Angelo, born in 1966, (articles 73 and 74 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
MUSUMECI Orazio, born in 1988, (articles 73 and 74 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
SICALI Santo, classe 1981, (art.73 D.P.R. 309/90, art. 416 bis. 1 c.p.);
SPAMPINATO Antonino, born in 1971, (Article 73 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
ZAGAME Nicolò, born in 1994, (Article 73 of Presidential Decree 309/90);
ZAGAME Rosario, classe 1972, (art. 416 bis, 73 DPR 309/90, art. 416 bis.1 cp).
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