They managed to launder large sums of money from the Palermo mafia clans thanks to compliant entrepreneurs and financial experts. Eleven people were arrested - six in prison and five under house arrest - at the end of an investigation by the Palermo DDA coordinated by the prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia and the Trapani carabinieri. The investigation, which also led to 12 notices of investigation, included historical figures of the Salemi mafia, faithful allies of the boss Matteo Messina Denaro, accused of having cleaned millions of euros and of having formed a solid alliance with the Calabrian 'ndrine . The suspects must respond in various capacities to charges of mafia, money laundering, auction rigging, fraudulent transfers of valuables and receiving stolen goods.
One of the key figures in the investigation by the Carabinieri of the Trapani Investigative Unit is Angelo Salvatore, mafia boss from Salemi, already convicted of mafia association, an entrepreneur who, according to the investigators, for years, managed Matteo Messina Denaro's investments in renewable energy.
Released from prison in 2019, he returned to business, counting on the collaboration of his son Andrea. The two, thanks to their ability to recruit professionals in the sector and to illegally penetrate the computer systems of banks, had put together a criminal group capable of laundering enormous sums of money from the Palermo gangs. The organization also attempted to acquire, by reinvesting dirty money, 12 Coop Sicilia outlets (but the deal later fell through); to launder foreign lire on behalf of the 'ndrangheta and to clean up the money of Calogero John Luppino, the king of clandestine online betting, another loyalist of the former fugitive.
The investigation also revealed a bid rigging in the tender for the management of electricity supply in Favignana. The tender concerned the construction of four medium voltage distribution lines, rigged so that the winners were two companies from Mazara del Vallo.
The complicity of finance and entrepreneurship
The financial mastermind of the criminal group that cleaned the dirty money of the gangs, discovered by the Trapani carabinieri, would have been a mafioso with a passion for finance closely linked to the 'ndrine of San Luca dei Nirta-Strangio. The man did not end up in prison, but received a warrant as part of the investigation which led to 11 precautionary measures.
It was he, according to the investigators, who, in close collaboration with Salvatore and Andrea Angelo, father and son, mafia entrepreneurs, and on behalf of a group of Palermo bosses such as the boss Michele Micalizzi, was able to organize a series of international money transfers . Millions of euros moved, thanks to the help of foreign entrepreneurs, to the accounts of "recipients", holders of deposits from institutions of large international banks such as HSBC.
"It can be stated entirely reasonably - writes the investigating judge who ordered the precautionary measure - that the choice of banks of such importance took place with the aim of hiding the illicit transactions among millions of others - even for very significant amounts - and of reducing the risk to incur anti-money laundering reports". "No one cares about you because my father and I will take care of it", Andrea Angelo reassured him, not knowing he was being intercepted. But his wife was worried about the man's safety, knowing about the illicit trafficking in which he was involved. "But are you going to prison? ... will they kill you?", she asked him.