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July 29, 2020 A major law enforcement operation has dismantled two criminal organizations, linked to 'Cosa Nostra', which specialize in extortion, robbery, production and trafficking in drugs, illegal possession of weapons and theft. It is called "operation Stele" because it is committed at the Stele dedicated to the victims of the Capaci massacre.

There are 37 suspects and 24 precautionary measures in various regions. The carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Palermo in action in Sicily, Emilia Romagna and Puglia to execute the order of precautionary custody in prison issued by the Court of Palermo, against 24 people. The investigations, followed by a pool of magistrates coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Ennio Petrigni and the substitutes Giorgia Spiri and Felice De Benedittis, have defeated the two gangs found to be connected with organized crime, rooted in the popular districts Cep, Cruillas, San Giovanni Apostolo and Zen 2, in Palermo, but which operated throughout the regional territory.

Among the countless thefts, reconstructed by telephone, environmental and video surveillance interceptions, the one of greatest symbolic value, dated 6 March 2017, stands out in the construction site equipped for the construction of the "Quarto Savona Quindici" memory garden, created on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the massacre of 23 May 1992 and dedicated to Giovanni Falcone, Francesca Morvillo and the men of the escort, risking to compromise the celebration of the important commemorative moment.  

The pyramid-shaped organization led by the ruling family of the Belt, historically and notoriously specialized in 'predatory' crimes, and where the members were meticulously organized with each other so much that the commission of crimes was considered a real activity work to be carried out with constancy and dedication, with precise and probed shifts over time.

The members, characterized by numerous precedents, boasted close contact with characters from common but also organized crime, with top representatives of Cosa Nostra. In fact, the mediation of top mafia figures has been documented, whenever thefts were committed unknowingly against people belonging to other mandates or to people close to them, such as in the case of a theft in Castellamare del Golfo or those against of the Edil Ponteggi of Bagheria owned by Paolo Scaduto, son of the boss Pino Scaduto, historical exponent of the Mafia family of Bagheria.

The closeness of the suspects to the common and organized underworld has also made it possible to acquire important elements regarding the production and trafficking of drugs, of an extortion nature but also in the field of weapons, as well as to acquire serious elements of responsibility that have already flowed into a connected procedure. penalty that led to the issue of numerous restrictive measures in the recent operation "Over" (Spaccaossa). The influence of the members emerged in the village of Cruillas and in the territory between Borgonuovo, San Giovanni Apostolo and Cep.

The association headed by Andrea Cintura, although he was imprisoned, using the components of his family, but also the collaboration of others, managed to force several businesses in the neighborhood to deliver weekly amounts of money that varied according to the type of activities, disguising extortion requests in the form of a contribution for the organization of the neighborhood party. Andrea Cintura and his son Domenico, at the top of the association, had complete dominance over the neighborhood and over anyone who wanted to take any kind of commercial initiative, including those who wanted to set up resellers.

The formation of a new criminal group was also documented, following the change in the internal balance of the main group, that of the Belt, circumstances that led to the removal of one of its members who would soon join a new group, operating in the Zen 2 district, which had targeted various strategic objectives such as the Bellolampo landfill and the municipal aqueduct.