'Ndrangheta and politics, the FdI group leader in Calabria and the Pd mayor of Reggio under investigation

At the center of the investigation Domenico Barillà, son-in-law of the boss of the Araniti gang. He would have taken physical action to channel the votes of the clans towards various candidates in the regional elections of 2020 and 2021 and in the municipal elections of the Calabrian capital in 2020

This morning, Tuesday 11 June, the ROS Carabinieri carried out 14 precautionary measures as part of an investigation coordinated by the Reggio Calabria District Anti-Mafia Directorate into alleged relationships between the 'Ndrangheta gangs and politics. In this case, the group leader of the Fratelli d'Italia in the region, Giuseppe Neri, the mayor of the Democratic Party of the Calabrian capital, Giuseppe Falcomatà, and the regional councilor of the dem Giuseppe Francesco Sera are being investigated - at large. The prosecutors had requested house arrest for Neri and Sera - however rejected by the investigating judge - while no request was made for Falcomatà.

In addition to the suspects, the police arrested 14 people: 7 suspects ended up in prison, 4 under house arrest and 3 with the obligation to sign. The charges range from mafia association, extortion aggravated by the mafia method, electoral crimes, corruption for an act contrary to official duties, material and ideological falsehood committed by the public official in public documents.

At the center of the investigation are the influences of local gangs on local politics. In particular, according to investigators, the Araniti clan - operating in the northern outskirts of Reggio Calabria - channeled its votes towards certain candidates.

Daniel Barillà, formally a local leader of the Democratic Party in the Calabrian capital, ended up under the scrutiny of the prosecutor's office, who on the occasion of the 2020 and 2021 regional elections would have taken action to bring the preferences of the gangs to the Melonians, and in particular to Giuseppe Neri (among the strong men of the Brothers of Italy in the region, with a past in the Democratic Party), while in the municipal elections the name indicated would have been that of Giuseppe Francesco Sera.

Barillà is not a politician like the others, because he is the son-in-law of the boss Domenico Araniti known as the "Duke", arrested this morning and considered the top of the gang. And according to the prosecutors' theory, Barillà acted as a transmission belt between the clans and local politics.

The investigations began in 2019 and would also have allowed us to "acquire symptomatic elements of the conditioning of the elections - at some polling stations - for the renewal of the Regional Council of Calabria (in 2020 and 2021) and of the City Council of Reggio Calabria (in 2020)".

The alleged irregularities were recorded above all in some polling stations in the northern area of ​​Reggio Calabria, where the Araniti are particularly strong. Here, also thanks to the complicity of some scrutineers, Barillà would have brought pre-filled ballot papers for people unable to vote, inserting them into the ballot box himself.

A commitment - according to the prosecutors - not free, given that after the vote Domenico Araniti's son-in-law received some appointments in public bodies.

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