• Bomb in an elderly center of Foggia, save cleaning woman. Structure already the target of attacks
  • Bomb in front of an Orta Nova shop: new attack a few hours after the demonstration in Foggia
  • Mafia, eight thousand people march against Foggia in organized crime
  • Foggia, bomb under an SUV: car owner denounced extortion

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January 16, 2020An attack in Foggia is still taking place on the day when the anti-racket government commissioner meets the institutions and traders. The Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, has foreseen "the sending of an extraordinary contingent of police forces in the province of Foggia", the Interior Ministry announced, recalling that "the operative section of the Investigative Directorate will already be active on February 15th anti-mafia, as announced on the occasion of the last provincial committee for public order and security on 23 December ".

"The opening of the operational section of the Dia and the destination of a greater number of police personnel confirm the will of the State to fight with the utmost determination all forms of crime, strengthening the structures intended for prevention and repression, and in at the same time to guarantee the capillary control of the territory also in the province and in the city of Foggia ", underlines the Minister of the Interior. "I renew my appreciation for the intense and complex activity carried out - continues the minister - and for the investigative results already achieved by the judiciary and by all the police forces on the front of the fight against a pervasive crime that is however destined to be defeated by the State "I trust in the mobilization of all civil society that has already shown, by participating in the recent march of Libera, that it wants to respond without fear to criminal attacks".

This morning a bomb was detonated in Foggia against a center for the elderly owned by the 'Sanità più' group whose human resources manager is Cristian Vigilante, who has already suffered a bomb attack on 3 January. The bomb exploded while a cleaning lady was working inside the center and was unharmed. Rescued by 118 staff, she was taken to the emergency room in a state of shock. The bomb was detonated in front of the entrance of the "Il Sorriso di Stefano" center in via Vincenzo Acquaviva, in a semi-central area of ​​the city. The explosion caused external damage to the structure, torn up the illuminated sign and damaged some parked cars. The police intervened on the spot.

On January 3, a very powerful bomb had been detonated under the car of Cristian Vigilante, witness in an investigation by the DDA against the Foggia mafia, and responsible for human resources of the RSA 'Il Sorriso'. The explosion had disemboweled the health manager's Discovery Land Rover and also damaged cars parked in the area. "It is clear that this is a sequel to the bomb from last time," Vigilante said as soon as he arrived on the spot with his brother Luca, also a manager in the same health group.

"We heard a loud roar and the sound of broken glass, I live in front of it. We heard a very loud noise then the glass of the staircase broke. We are in war in Foggia". A resident of via Vincenzo Acquaviva told it where strangers placed a bomb at the foot of the gate of a day care center for the elderly.

Today in Foggia for a series of meetings already scheduled Annapaola Porzio, the extraordinary commissioner of the Government for the coordination of anti-racket and anti-usury initiatives. In the morning in the prefecture there was a meeting with the Bari prosecutor and the chief prosecutor of Foggia, the provincial leaders of the police and representatives of regional and local administrations.

"Enough, change your life, so you don't get anything." It is the message addressed to his attackers by Luca Vigilante, president of the "Sanità Più" group which manages the day care center for the elderly "Il Sorriso di Stefano" where unknown people detonated a bomb at dawn.

"We are all dumbfounded. This umpteenth episode worries us further. We absolutely did not expect such a thing after a few days of a collective, social, institutional response", he added referring to the anti-mafia march organized by Libera on 10 January brought thousands of people to Foggia. A single hooded person would have placed the bomb. This is what would emerge from a first view of the security cameras' videos of the health structure of the 'Sanita Più' group of which Luca Vigilante is the president while his brother Cristian (already the victim of a bomb attack last January 3) is the head of Resources human.

Luca Vigilante and his father-in-law Paolo Telesforo are offended parties while Cristian Vigilante is witness in the process called 'Tenth Action' against 29 alleged exponents of the Foggia mafia. Two of the 29 defendants, Francesco Tizzano and Ernesto Gatta, for whom the trial with abbreviated rite is in progress in Bari, are accused of an attempted extortion against the residential center 'Il Sorriso' in viale degli Aviatori for asking for 'lace and assumptions, these facts confirmed to investigators by Cristian Vigilante to whom extortion requests had been addressed. The investigation into the attack passed on to the DDA of Bari.

Count: the state does not let down its guard
"The state and the citizens of Foggia do not lower their heads. The investigators are already at work and we will not give respite to those who think, with violence, to exile legality, freedom and justice. We will win this battle together". So Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Twitter after the explosion of a bomb in an elderly center in Foggia.