Ros, 30 years in business: fugitives arrested, major investigations and the fight against terrorism

Major investigations, arrested fugitives and the fight against internal and external terrorism: there are many results from the special operative group of carabinieri whose 30 years of activity will be celebrated tomorrow in Rome. From the arrest of Totò Riina, then the ‘undisputed’ head of Cosa Nostra and a fugitive for 23 years, taken on January 15, 1993 in Palermo, to the capture of Rocco Morabito, a leading exponent of the ‘Ndrangheta discovered on May 24th of this’ year in Brazil, 18 fugitives of maximum danger included in the ‘special research program’ of the Interior Ministry were arrested. The first important arrest comes precisely with the capture of Riina at the beginning of 1993 which is followed 17 years after the capture of the head of Cosa Nostra of the province of Agrigento, Gerlandino Messina, taken in 2010. But the action of the Ros proves effective even in the contrast to the ‘Ndrangheta. They end up in handcuffs in this order Girolamo Molé (1997), a leading exponent of the homonymous gang; Giuseppe Barbaro (2001), author of numerous kidnappings in the 70-80s; Giuseppe Morabito (2004), known as ‘u tiradrittu’, drug trafficker and leading exponent; Pasquale Tegano (2004); Gregorio Bellocco (2005); Giuseppe D’Agostino (2006); Giuseppe Bellocco (2007); Pasquale Condello (2008), called ‘the supreme’, considered the most important exponent of the ‘Ndrangheta after Giuseppe Morabito; Giuseppe Coluccio (2008), specialized in international drug trafficking and taken in Canada; Antonio Pelle (2009), head of the homonymous gang and apical exponent of the ‘Ndrangheta; Sebastiano Pelle (2011), a leading exponent of the homonymous gang specialized in drug trafficking; Domenico Condello (2012), a leading exponent of the homonymous clan and Rocco Morabito, captured with Vincenzo Pasquino just last May in Brazil. The two were drug traffickers and leading exponents of the ‘Ndrangheta. In contrast to the Camorra there are the arrests of Paolo Di Lauro (2005), protagonist of the well-known Scampia feud; Francesco Matrone (2012) known as ‘Franchino à belva’, head of the homonymous Camorra clan of Scafati (Salerno) and Marco Di Lauro (2019), a leading exponent of the homonymous clan, arrested with the provincial command of Naples, the police and the As for the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, there are 13 major operations concluded between 1995 and 2019, some of these well known in the news, such as the ‘Grande Mandamento’ investigation, which ended with the arrest of 21 affiliated with Cosa Nostra which was part of the research activity of Bernardo Provenzano, between 2001 and 2004, and which allowed to dismantle the complex logistic circuit supporting the fugitive, made up of people of proven loyalty and high experience able to ensure its custody and the transmission of directives to the entire organization. More recently, the ‘Middle world’ survey, which, concluded in May 2015, hit an organization, rooted in the capital and headed by Massimo Carminati, with the ability to infiltrate the economic and institutional fabric, with an apparatus capable of manage illicit interests, in particular in the public procurement sector. Most recently the Rinascita Scott investigation, which ended in December 2019 with the arrest of 334 people under investigation for mafia-type association and other crimes, which disrupted a large part of the ‘Ndrangheta Vibonese, belonging to the Mancuso clan of Limbadi (Vibo Valentia). Among the first investigations on subversion and terrorism, among others, we recall the Pontelungo investigation (1996) against the subversive association Revolutionary Anarchist Insurrectionalist Organization responsible for bank robberies and kidnappings and propaganda, proselytism and logistical support of fugitives and detained anarchists. Eight years later (2004) the Osoppo investigation which led to the arrest of Jerome Cruciani, for ‘subversive association and armed gang’ and ‘robbery aggravated by terrorism’, since it was believed to belong to the subversive organization Nuclei Comunisti Combattenti (Ncc). It was precisely this investigation, which was developed after the murder of Massimo D’Antona, killed on May 20, 1999 by the ‘Red Brigades-Fighting Communist Party’, that confirmed how the Br-Pcc group originated from the NCCs. And again the capture of Rose Ann Scrocco (2006), nickname Lucia, anarcho-insurrectionist militant included in the list of the so-called 30 great fugitives and untraceable since 1991. The woman had been sentenced in 1996 for kidnapping and murder of Mirella Silocchi, as well as found guilty of terrorist association and armed gang, as belonging to the subversive organization called Revolutionary Anarchist Insurrectionalist Organization (Orai). The Black Aquila investigation dates back to 2014, against members of the clandestine group that called itself ‘Avant-garde Ordinovista’, for association with the purpose of terrorism or subversion of the democratic order, aimed at inciting hatred or racial discrimination and incitement to commit acts of violence or provocation of violence against persons belonging to a national, ethnic or racial group. In particular, the investigative activities have documented the top-down structure of the association, oriented towards the planning of violent and destabilizing acts as well as the search for weapons for their realization. Last in chronological order is the Menzogna investigation, which subjected 12 people to the obligation of presentation to the Judicial Police, under investigation for association aimed at propaganda and incitement for reasons of ethnic and religious discrimination. The activities carried out revealed the existence and operation of a group, called the Ario Romano Order, permanently dedicated to the publication, via social networks and chats, of writings, messages, videos and images with clearly racist and discriminatory content, among the such as numerous invectives against people of Jewish origin and praising the denial of the Shoah. There are many operations against international terrorism, especially of a jihadist matrix, against individuals and terrorist organizations that acted on the web and not. The arrests of some foreign fitghers such as Alice Brignoli, who left the national territory in 2015 with her family to reach the territories of the Islamic State, are also part of this investigation. Finally, the main investigations carried out by the Violent Crimes Department concerned others some great cases of crime news, such as the murders of Sara Scazzi, Yara Gambirasio, Loris Stival, Roberta Ragusa, Trifone Ragone and Teresa Costanza and last in chronological order the killing of the minor Noemi Durini, which took place in Castrignano del Capo, the September 3, 2017, for which her boyfriend ended up in handcuffs. The bombing of the Morvillo-Falcone school in Brindisi on 19 May 2012, the massacre of Palagiano (2014), in which a convict, his partner and the son of just two years, and of which the instigator of the massacre was arrested, a man with precedent for mafia association, and the massacre of San Marco in Lamis, which took place on 9 August 2017, in which four people were killed, two of which were random witnesses, of which the responsible was arrested. Finally, a few days ago, the extradition of the Chechen Rassoul Bissoultanov, arrested in February, because he was held responsible, in competition with a fellow countryman, for the beating that, on 12 August 2017, resulted in the death of the young Niccolò Ciatti in a nightclub in Lloret De Mar, Spain. This investigation was also handled by the Ros.