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30 January 2020 The former mayor of Marano, near Naples, Mauro Bertini, 75 years old, now an opposition councilor, was arrested for external competition in association with mafia-type criminal offenses for alleged links with the Polverino clan and corruption for acts contrary to duties of office. The precautionary measure concerns two other people, the businessman Angelo Simeoli and the then manager of the technical office Armando Santelia. The entrepreneur and the former first citizen, because they are over seventy, are under house arrest. For Santelia, the magistrate ordered the interdictive measure of suspension from public offices for 12 months. Bertini had previously ended up under investigation in an investigation into relations between the gang, among the most powerful and economically strong in Campania, and local administrations, but he was acquitted of the charges.

Three recipients of the precautionary measures are investigated, in various capacities, for external competition in mafia association and corruption for acts contrary to official duties aggravated by mafia purposes for having favored the Polverino clan.

The restrictive measure was born from a section of investigations of 24 May 2017 that had led to the domicile of 5 people between entrepreneurs and parliaments. They had connections with exponents of the Polverino family, and the support of the boss Giuseppe called 'o Barone. At the time, the clan had won a public construction contract.

Following the money, listening to the suspects with the eavesdropping and the statements of repentant investigations have reconstructed the role played by figures belonging to the municipal administration of Marano and to the business world. Bertini and Santelia, the first in exchange for € 125,000 paid by the Cesaro brothers, would have favored the award to the company attributable to the latter of a public contract worth over € 40 million.

Simeoli, aka Bastone, a building contractor already on trial for the crime of external competition in a mafia association, participated in the corruptive agreement, and monetized, concealing the operation with apparent activities carried out by its own companies, 5 bank checks for a total of 62,500 euro, sum then sent to the former mayor Bertini, for a balance of another 50 thousand euros, given in cash always to Bertini directly by the brothers. Bertini and Simeoli are also under investigation for the construction, in the years 2004-2006, in violation of the municipal regulatory plan in force, of a residential complex consisting of 27 apartments and 9 commercial activities, built with the demolition of an old estate in state of abandonment, at Masseria Galeota. The works were carried out by a construction company from Simeoli who had paid Bertini to receive the authorizations.

Santelia, manager of the Technical Office, already on trial for a crime later prescribed for urban planning violations, on Bertini's directives, had allowed Simeoli to present a simple Declaration of the start of the business instead of the necessary building permit. At the same time, a preventive seizure of assets was carried out for an estimated value of approximately € 1 million.