Cpr - Repatriation detention centers

Islands. Spaces of education and civil disobedience

Cpr - Repatriation detention centers

Islands. Spaces of education and civil disobedience

'Ndrangheta in Valle d'Aosta: a dissolved municipality and three politicians on trial

A fter the Interior Ministry's decision, the commissioners arrive in Saint-Pierre (Valle d'Aosta). In his administration a councilor was supported by some alleged mafiosi. Soon that politician will end up in front of the judges together with two other elected officials

Andrea Giambartolomei Editor of lavialibera

Updated on January 26, 2023

Update: on 19 July 2021 the Court of Appeal of Turin acquitted the former councilor Marco Sorbara, sentenced in first instance by the Court of Aosta to 10 years for external complicity in a mafia association. The acquittal was also confirmed by the Court of Cassation on 25 January 2023.

On Thursday evening the Ministry of the Interior decided: the administration of the Municipality of Saint-Pierre, 3,200 inhabitants at 731 meters above sea level in the Aosta Valley, has been infiltrated by the 'Ndrangheta and for this reason must be placed under commissionership. It is a consequence of the "Gehenna" investigation which involved Monica Carcea, councilor of the small town, in close relations with men suspected of belonging to the Calabrian criminal organisation. The mayor of Saint-Pierre, the council and the city council, although not under investigation, will leave their positions. The administration will pass for 18 months in the hands of three commissioners appointed by the president of the Valle d'Aosta Region who, due to the special statute, also has the role of prefect. “The dissolution of the municipality of Saint-Pierre effectively decrees the end of the perception of the Valle D'Aosta region as a happy island”, claims the regional coordination of Libera.

However, the administration of Aosta will not be placed under commissionership, as communicated by the Presidency of the Region on Tuesday 4 February. According to the Ministry, the activities of the prefectural investigation commission did not reveal the conditions necessary to proceed with the dissolution. The decisions came at the end of a process started with the "Gehenna" operation: on 23 January 2019 the carabinieri of the Aosta Group and the Special Operational Group (Ros) of Turin, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, arrested 16 people, many of whom were accused of mafia-type criminal association. The three politicians were also among the 16 arrested. This is also why in March 2019 the President of the Region Antonio Fosson (who resigned in December because he was involved in another investigation), in his capacity as prefect, launched the investigation commission which for six months examined the documents of the two municipalities in search of evidence of mafia influence.

Dissolution of municipalities due to mafia, this is how it works

The three politicians arrested more than a year ago will end up on trial on March 11 before the Court of Aosta. In addition to the councilor of Saint-Pierre, Carcea, the Aosta Valley regional councilor Marco Sorbara (elected in 2018 after a period as municipal councilor in Aosta) and Nicola Prettico, elected municipal councilor of the capital in 2015, were also involved. The latter is accused of mafia association, believed to be a member of the local 'ndrangheta of Aosta, while Sorbara and Carcea must defend themselves from the accusation of external complicity in a mafia association for having supported the organization. The three politicians had very close contacts with two men accused of mafia association, alleged members of the local 'Ndrangheta. These are Marco Fabrizio Di Donato and Antonio Raso, in whose pizzeria "La Rotonda" meetings took place to organize the electoral campaigns. Thanks to the knowledge of these politicians, the alleged 'Ndranghetaists had come into contact with the then President of the Region Augusto Rollandin (not under investigation), a prominent representative of the Union Valdôtaine, a party which held power in the Vallée for many years.

A plan born twenty years ago

It seems that the plan of an old acquaintance of the judiciary, Santo Pansera, considered a "boss" of the Calabrians in Valle d'Aosta, was about to come true. On 18 July 2000, during the "Lenzuolo" investigation, the investigators had intercepted Pansera while he was talking about a Calabrian candidate with the Valdôtaine Union who had obtained six hundred votes: "In the Union, three or four Calabrians can run, but perhaps it is the only move to make. Now that is left, there is nothing else. Four or five who run (...) we will take the Union party". A useful move to manage power and cultivate business.

Almost twenty years later, the investigating judge of the Court of Turin Silvia Salvadori wrote thus in the precautionary custody order of the "Gehenna" operation: "The criminal program consists in continuing to infiltrate the associates of the organization (Prettico is an example) and the subjects contiguous to it and elected with the votes conveyed by the associates in the highest institutional and political bodies of the Aosta Valley". This would have made it possible "to favor firms and companies linked or close to the organization to obtain public works", as happened in Saint-Pierre where Carcea had obtained the school transport contract from a company linked to crime.