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April 26, 2021 Ninety-six people in prison, three under house arrest.

All deemed to be affiliated with the criminal group of the Strisciuglio which manages illegal activities in Bari.

The disputed crimes are mafia association, weapons, drugs, injuries and brawls.

The investigations of the operation called 'Vortice-Maestrale', conducted by police and carabinieri coordinated by Dda di Bari with the collaboration of the national anti-mafia directorate, focused on the last six years and on the methods chosen by the group not only to define its own hierarchy internal but also to impose itself, in the control of illegal activities, in various districts of the city and in the nearby municipalities of Palo del Colle and Conversano.



In the course of the investigative investigations, episodes of extortion against merchants, affiliation rites and punitive shipments against those who did not pay off debts or got stuck in sentimental matters were documented. For the investigators were Ivan Caldarola and Vito Valentino - both with criminal records - at the top of the organization and who could count on the collaboration of other neighborhood and city representatives.



To 53 of the arrested the precautionary custody order signed by the investigating judge of the Bari court, Giovanni Anglana, was notified in prison. The investigation has a total of 147 suspects and made use of the statements made by about twenty collaborators of justice.


Anti-mafia operation in Bari #PoliziadiStato and @_Carabinieri_ are carrying out a precautionary custody order against 99 people under investigation deemed leaders and affiliates of the Strisciuglio clan # 26aprile #essercisempre pic.twitter.com/ymnyyFoxFl

- State Police (@poliziadistato) April 26, 2021



Brawl in prison changed clan balance

The violent brawl between 41 inmates took place in the Bari prison on 11 January 2016, after the breaking of the alliance between the Strisciuglio and Misceo clans, "he represented a fundamental hub in the associative dynamics in the Bari area ".

The episode is reconstructed in the pre-trial detention order carried out today against 99 members of the Strisciuglio clan.



The investigation by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) highlighted the power of intimidation and the ability of the clan to exercise control even within prisons and the "extreme importance" of that brawl, in which even police officers were injured. Penitentiary police, "able to affect a sort of rebalancing of the Bari mafia landscape, also in relation to the interests connected to the various illegal activities".



From that moment, in fact, an "invasion" by the Bari criminal group on some territories of the province would have begun, above all to seize the drug dealing squares. And right from the prison "the top members of the Strisciuglio clan - the documents read - continued to manage the illegal activities, to issue orders and directives, not only through the embassies communicated externally through family members, but also using mobile phones illegally delivered to prisons throughout the national territory ". In the district house of Bari - the investigations have documented and revealed collaborators of justice - drugs also entered, launched with slings or, on the occasion of the Christmas holidays, with drones.



Mayor: "Bari freer thanks to the judiciary and the police "

 "Bari is now a freer city thanks to the constant and fruitful work of the judiciary and the police". From the mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, the applause for the anti-mafia blitz that today led to the arrest of 99 people, on charges of mafia-type criminal association, because they were considered affiliated with the Strisciuglio clan.



"A very hard blow to local crime", says Decaro. "To them, to every single operator of justice, my heartfelt thanks go as mayor and as a citizen. This is justice in our city". Competent investigators and investigators - he continues - professionals of excellence, women and men who honestly carry out their work and who loyally serve the State in compliance with the constitutional values ​​on which they have sworn "." Today Bari can look to the future with more confidence ", he concludes the mayor of the Apulian capital.