Cagliostro (Antiracket): “Denouncing is always worthwhile”

“Often the investigation is long and cumbersome. Well, we have started a project that will allow, at the end of this year, to significantly reduce instructor times. We will replace the IT platform, which is no longer able to make all the actors of the procedure, in real time. Therefore, this project will see the light, when fully operational, after the summer of 2022. And this is already an important step and a response to red tape “. This was stated by the extraordinary Commissioner for the coordination of anti-racket and anti-usury initiatives, Prefect Giovanna Stefania Cagliostro, speaking today at the conference ‘Racket and usury, the virus that infects the economy’ organized by the Prefecture of Palermo and by the Extraordinary Commission of the Municipality of Partinico (Palermo), composed by Concetta Caruso, Maria Baratta and Isabella Giusto. “This is an opportunity that gives the opportunity, especially to me, to confront myself with reality and with the territories and doing this initiative in a territory like Partinico has an added value”, says the Prefect Cagliostro. “The victim who denounces has neither time nor desire to wait because when he decides to take this step he needs certain answers, and often does not have enough confidence in the state. And here I represent the state here”, he explains. “It pays to denounce, because the victim is absolutely not left alone,” he says. Prefect Cagliostro also wanted to thank the world of associations because “they accompany the victim not only when he decides but when we disburse the funds, in those moments the victim is confused and disoriented”. The Prefect then listed the latest data on racketeering and usury: “They are unsatisfactory data,” he announces. “In 2019, 314 claims for extortion compensation were filed and in 2020 they were 284”, on the usury front “in 2019 they were 418 and in 2020 just 255”. Prefect Forlani, ‘The fight against racketeering also passes with a climate of trust’ “Extortion and usury are practices that prevent the creation of a future and prospects. And the fight against racketeering also involves creating a climate of trust in institutions , which can make all the tools that the legal system makes available, especially prevention. The only way to do it is to report “, said the Prefect of Palermo, Giuseppe Forlani, during the institutional greetings of the conference on Racket and Usura , moderated by the journalist Adnkronos Elvira Terranova. “I want to acknowledge to the Extraordinary Commission of the Municipality of Partinico the very important work it is carrying out, not only to restore legality through the assumption of all those acts that serve to maintain the practices and procedures to carry out precisely the fundamental task that a municipal administration must carry out – he said – But I also want to recognize the merits of this Commission in a further activity, which is also the social restoration of the premises that serve to maintain the results achieved over time. This also means creating trust in citizens who they know that they can turn to the Municipality to have their rights “. The intervention of the Archbishop of Monreale, Monsignor Michele Pennisi, was also very appreciated. “The mafia phenomenon is now very widespread and goes beyond the borders of Sicily, in all areas linked to economic power. A clear conviction has matured in the Church of the incompatibility between faith and the mafia. An explicit condemnation of the mafia. A commitment is needed. of the whole Church in the direction of liberation from the scourge of the mafia, usury and protection money “, said in his speech Monsignor Pennisi, who is also a member of the working group on the excommunication of the mafias at the Vatican. The archbishop reaffirmed the “radical incompatibility between the mafia and Christian life and the refusal of any compromise of the ecclesial community with the mafia phenomenon”, he said. “The racket and usury are gangrenous wounds of our society also connected with the various mafias. – he added – The mafia phenomenon in its many aspects and in the different nomenclatures is now very widespread and goes beyond the borders of Sicily and Italy itself to take root in once unsuspected territories and in all related areas above all to economic power: drug market, exploitation of prostitution, various types of usury racket, infiltration into political life “. Monsignor Pennisi ‘The Church of Monreale wants to make a contribution to the common good’ “The Church of Monreale, with this and other initiatives through the diocesan Caritas and the parish Caritas – he specified -, wants to make a contribution to the common good and a signal strong to all of society reaffirming the radical incompatibility between the mafia and Christian life and the consequent refusal of any compromise of the ecclesial community with the mafia phenomenon “. For Pennisi: “It is the task of the Church both to help to become aware that everyone, including Christians, feed the humus where the mafia flourishes and easily grows, and to induce the overcoming of the current situation through conversion to the Gospel, capable of creating an anti-mafia culture founded on the awareness that the common good is the result of the responsible contribution of each and every one “. For the Assistant Prosecutor of Palermo Annamaria Picozzi,” nothing like extortion and usury constitute sources of criminal contamination of the ‘economy “,” are an endangerment of constitutional rank, phenomena harmful to personal freedom, the right to work, rights protected not only by the Constitution, but are the foundations of the European Union “. Salvatore Cordaro, who came on behalf of Governor Nello Musumeci, reiterated in his speech that “the penalties should be tightened for those who still pay the protection money”. Del Bene ‘Cosa Nostra has not been defeated, a phenomenon still present’ The deputy prosecutor of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate Francesco Del Bene wanted to reiterate that “The mafia was not defeated, the Corleonese fraction was defeated, which represented a season of Cosa ours, but it is a phenomenon that is still present and pervasive and is demonstrated by the operations in the area and by the dissolution of the municipalities due to mafia infiltration “. “Cosa Nostra is in trouble, but it is chameleonic and is able to adapt to times and moments. And in this moment of crisis linked to the pandemic – he added – it sees precisely in the pandemic and in the funding that will come an opportunity for rebirth and profit” . And he explained: “The pressure of the pizzo remains strong”, “because it remains a privileged form of control of the territory”. “In the last period between the extortionist and the victim a sort of contract is created – says the magistrate – In this period the mafia have noticed who was in crisis and who was not, and who was in difficulty instead of asking for protection money, yes it offered economic help, liquidity to go forward; in this situation an entrepreneur finds himself in enormous difficulty “. In central and northern Italy “it was the entrepreneurs who accepted the mafia organization and now it is very difficult to investigate. We are in a phase of confusion between the legal economy and the illegal economy; and the latter is invading the other, to the point that the boundaries are no longer clear. For Del Bene the tools are there. “It is a problem – he warns – of a cultural nature. We need to educate young people, entrepreneurs who are approached to think for the State “. In short, we need to gain awareness. We are in a phase of regression – reports Del Bene – due to a pandemic economic crisis, but each one must exercise his or her role , the tools are there, the trade associations as well. But we need a surge of pride on the part of everyone, because we must free ourselves from this mafia culture “. his speech explained that “often the initiative is of the victim, of the usured person and not of the usurer”. And he recalled that behind the usury “there is often the mafia”, which “allows control of the territory”. The provincial Commander of the Carabinieri, General Giuseppe De Liso wished to recall, in his speech, that “In the province of Palermo alone, 216 extortions have been ascertained by the police since the beginning of the year. But there are still very few who report , we are talking about about 6 percent “. “As Weapon we have followed 115 of these extortion episodes – he says – but the complaints received were only 7”. The Quaestor ‘The protection money requested also during the lockdown’ And the Police Commissioner of Palermo Leolopolo Laricchia reiterated that “the protection money was requested even during the lockdown, some investigations emerged. The latest operation carried out on the Ciaculli neighborhood in Palermo has brought to light about fifty extortion incidents in the face of no complaint. Indeed, a disturbing picture emerged from the interceptions where even the extorted lived his condition as if he were suffering from the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. The victim saw his extortionist as the necessary path to justify the disbursement of the sums requested “. Colonel Andrea Canale, Commander of the Territorial Group of the Guardia di Finanza of Palermo , recalled one of the latest anti-racket operations in the Vucciria district of Palermo where the victim, an entrepreneur, tired of the constant requests threatened if he denounced, with the help of the anti-racket and anti-usury association Solidaria. “Thanks to the associations this person has found the courage to come closer to us,” he said. “Both extortion and usury represent one of the most shameful and devious crimes because they not only affect the individual citizen but contaminate the economic fabric”. Representatives of some anti-racket and anti-usury associations also intervened: Salvatore Caradonna of Addiopizzo, Salvatore Cernigliaro of Solisaria, Vito Lomonaco of the Pio La Torre Center and Manfredi Zammataro of Codice Sicilia, who reiterated the existence of an “institutional network capable of give effective support “. “We need to work even harder in difficult territories like this,” he says.