Property of “‘Ndrangheta accountant seized”

The property seized during Operation Bad Boys, against the Lonate Pozzolo group of ‘Ndrangheta, which, on 5 July last, was sentenced in the first degree, is being slowly and definitively seized because it is the result of extortion, loan-sharking and threats. The property, which has a total value of over €30 million, will become part of the endless list of activities that awaits the reappointment of the governmental agency created for its reassignment. In Varese Province. there are 260 properties, of which only a few have been reassigned.
The first seizure was made in March 2009, on the day after the arrests in Operation Bad Boys, when almost 40 people were arrested, who were charged with belonging, backing and favouring the crime group; the property seized included 17 companies, 43 apartments, 4 bars and restaurants, 1 piece of land, 20 cars, and 70 current accounts. The list also included several directly or indirectly controlled construction companies, clubs well-known among young people, such as Stomp in Legnano, and Billiard in Busto Arsizio, bars and a large number of bank accounts through which the money from extortion was moved. The second seizure was in November 2010, when a petrol pump, two clubs, several apartments between Varese and Gallarate, two detached houses and other current accounts, with a total value of €7 million, were targeted.
On the request of the Italian Antimafia investigation District Office in Milan, Carabinieri from Varese, with the support of Carabinieri from the CID of the Court of Milan and local commands, seized all of this property in Varese Province, Milan and Crotone, from Vincenzo Rispoli, the head of the Mafia-like crime organisation based in the Malpensa area, which is affiliated to the Farao-Marinicola group in Crotone Province. Part of the €30 million total was seized by the Government.
Apart from what was seized, property worth €3 million was taken from Giulio Baracchi, who was identified as the accountant of the crime group. The accountant was arrested with all of the others, but after a few days, was released, and excluded, once and for all, from the investigation. This seizure was carried out in preparation for the seizure, by the Court of Varese, on the request of the CID in Milan. From Giulio Baracchi, the Carabinieri of Varese seized two buildings, complete with furniture, two plots of land, a number of detached houses and a garage, all situated in Portovaltravaglia, the shares of a company that operates in the HR sector, and several bank bonds (one of which, in particular, with a Ticino bank, has a credit balance of €1,300,000), which, according to initial estimates, are worth about €3 million.
The actions taken are the result of property investigations carried out by the Operations Department in Varese, in 2005, and coordinated by the public prosecutor Mario Venditti, which led to the identification of the dominant crime organisation in the area. The Carabinieri explained that the operation is part of the strategy of preventing ‘Ndrangheta infiltration in Lombardy, particularly by attacking property that is the result of money extortion and loan-sharking. This strategy was implemented by the Milan CID, and involved the Varese Provincial Command, who brought together a number of lines of investigation that resulted from other investigations carried out with the Public Prosecutor’s Offices of Varese and Busto Arsizio.