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Bari 07 July 2015 40 people arrested in Bari during an investigation that uncovered a capillary network of looters belonging to the Bari mafia clan of the Strisciuglio. Among the illustrious names of those arrested are those of Domenico Strisciuglio, head of the homonymous clan already detained in Novara, Sigismondo Strisciuglio, in prison in Milan, and that of the latter's wife, Eugenia Prudente, destined for the women's section of the Lecce prison . Of the 40 arrested, 39 ended up in prison, one under house arrest (a collaborator of justice residing in a protected area) and 9 people reported on the loose.



They used cemetery niches to hide weapons and ammunition. Found behind the tombstone of a professor who died in 1962, guns, ammunition and even a hand grenade type "pineapple" capable of blowing up a house or a shop.



The investigations have reconstructed years of hegemony and domination of the Strisciuglio clan in vital sectors of the economy, first of all the construction sector. The entrepreneurs in order to work quietly and not be subjected to retaliation by the clans were forced to submit to a double taxation of the pizzo, paying both the Strisciuglio and the men of the Di Cosola clan. Investigators also discovered the construction site of an elementary school in Palese which was allegedly subject to extortion.



An important role within the clan of the Strisciuglio brothers was also played by some ultras of Bari Calcio. They would have been the ones to control and extort the protection money from street vendors on the occasion of recent musical concerts by nationally renowned artists at the San Nicola stadium.



The carabinieri, during the investigations, managed to reconstruct the dynamics of the affiliation rites borrowed from the Camorra from Campania and blocked by the Strisciuglio brothers because they were considered too dangerous for the secrecy of the clan. The ritual required that the new affiliate be officially presented to the others by their godfather. It was announced like this: "This is my boy". The young man then began his career within the clan with the "degrees of baptism" and after the fourth degree he had the right to found his own clan.



The appearance, according to investigators, economically guaranteed the family in the event of the arrest of the franchisee. The family members received a monthly sum called "spartenza", and it was in this way that the leaders, even if in prison, could guarantee a high standard of living for the families by facing even big events such as a wedding in a luxurious way.



Finally, the role of women in the clan also played a fundamental role. They were real messengers who updated the leaders in prison on the dynamics of affiliation, managing to get drugs into the cells.