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Why Catania is an important city for South American drug traffickers (and Albanian criminal groups)

2023-04-25 18:18:12Fokus SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Why Catania is an important city for South American drug traffickers (and
Cocaine seized off the coast of Catania

A shipment of two tonnes of cocaine was discovered at sea in Catania, Sicily this week. There were 70 bundles connected by floating nets and in the center there was a light signal. The Guardia di Finanza explained that it was "one of the biggest seizures ever carried out on Italian territory" and that the cargo, once on the market, would have given the traffickers around 400 million euros in profit. 70 packages contained 1,600 blocks of cocaine stored in waterproof packaging.

Catania, for both sea and air routes, has long become an important arrival point for large drug shipments following the routes between South America, North Africa and Sicily.

In terms of traffic carried out by sea, drug packages are left on the open sea, so coordinates indicating the exact position of the cargo are sent to whoever needs to recover it.

Then, from the shore, motorboats move to the sea, that is, motorboats capable of going to the open sea, which complete the operation in a short time and with little risk. However, this is not the only method used by criminal drug gangs.

In October 2022, one hundred and ten kilograms of cocaine were seized in the port of Catania, inside a container of tropical fruit coming from Ecuador. Other shipments were also intercepted at Catania's Fontanarossa airport.

As early as 2021, the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA) wrote in its six-monthly report that police operations had made it possible to "focus on how the province of Etna [Catania] has become a decisive center for importing drugs from South America.

The criminal structure, well organized and linked to the Sinaloa cartel, in addition to drug trafficking, was dedicated to the commission of numerous satellite crimes through an active group in Italy, Spain and Latin America.

According to Dia, it is reasonable to ask whether the Sicilian mafia consortia, spread over the territory and insinuated in all the mechanisms of legal and illegal production, can accept the activity of criminal groups dedicated to crimes that coincide with their interests typical.

In practice, according to the DIA, there is an alliance between Sicilian mafia gangs and drug traffickers from South America.

In recent years, the Catania mafia has taken on an increasingly important role in the organization "Cosa Nostra", the Sicilian mafia, taking advantage of the weakening of the Palermo clans.

The Catania mafia has become allies with several groups such as the Calabrian "Ndranghetta", the Neapolitan "Camorra" clans and Albanian criminal groups.

And at the end of this criminal chain, there are also the drug-trafficking groups of South America, in particular the Mexican "Sinaloa" cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world, which has extended its influence from Mexico. throughout South America and Europe.

According to Dia, it is the mafia families that have always been hegemonic in the Catania area: the Santapaolas, the Ercolanos, the Mazzei, the La Roccas, the Lamaccas, the ones that manage relations with other criminal organizations and are therefore established on the drug trafficking routes .

According to Carmelo Zuccaro, the Anti-Mafia Prosecutor in Catania, the Santapaola-Ercolanos "have links with rival mafia associations in the same area", in some cases reaching "joint agreements in the management of illegal activities and, in general, in the infiltration of business structure".

On the opposite side of the criminal pact, is the "Sinaloa Cartel". Founded in the 1960s, it emerged as the dominant drug trafficking organization in the 1980s and 1990s when it was commanded by Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, known as "Don Neto", Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, known as "El Jefe de Jefes ", Amado Carrillo.

Fuentes, known as "El Señor de los Cielos" and above all by Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known as "El Chapo", whose sons continue to play important roles in the criminal organization.

Now, at the head of the organization is Ismael Zambada Garcia, known as "El Mayo" or "Don Ismael". According to investigative journalism website Insight Crime, "El Mayo" began dealing drugs in the late 1970s.

He is the last remaining drug trafficker of the so-called "old guard", the longest-lived of the leaders still at large.

However, it is not "El Mayo" himself who connected with the mafia of Catania. This was done by his lieutenant, José Angel Riviera Zazueta, known as "El Flaco".

In 2019, his presence was reported in Catania, then moved to Rome and finally back to Mexico.

Shortly afterwards, according to the reconstruction of the Guardia di Finanza, two of his emissaries arrived in Catania: Daniel Esteban Ortega Ubeda, known as "Tito", 35, and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez, known as "Felix", 48 years old.

Also according to the Guardia di Finanza, the two emissaries worked closely with a Mexican in Colombia, Luis Ferdinando Morales Hernandez, known as "El Suegro", in charge of preparing the cargo that was destined for the Catania airport from Colombia.

Here was a trusted man of the cartel, known to drug traffickers as "Don Señor". All communications between the two emissaries who arrived in Catania from Colombia, "Don Señor" and the leaders of the organization, were intercepted.

The two emissaries in Catania, in telephone conversations, addressed "Flaco", calling him "my Lord".

The plan, which was uncovered by the Guardia di Finanza in 2019, called for a private plane departing from Mexico City to stop in Cartagena, Colombia, where the drugs would be loaded and then fly to Catania, making a stopover for fuel at Capo Green. The expected cargo was about 300 kilograms of cocaine.

The shipment left in October 2019 after a series of delays due to organizational problems and consisted of 406 kilograms of cocaine.

However, it was a so-called controlled shipment: it means that the entire shipment from Colombia to Catania was followed by the Guardia di Finanza, in cooperation with the Colombian anti-drug police. Then in Catania, the cargo was moved to a warehouse in the suburbs that was identified by "Don Señor".

The latter was given 32 packages of drugs as payment. Among the buyers waiting for the arrival of the drugs, there was also an Italian middleman, known as "Charlie".

His name is Mauro Da Fiume and he was featured in the documents of other investigations because he was connected to the 'Ndrangheta family of Piromalli.

The nickname derives from an import-export company that Da Fiume managed in Barcelona, ​​"Charlie Export".

Da Fiume and the envoys of "Flaco", on behalf of the "Sinaloa" cartel, were to meet in Verona, then the meeting was moved to Milan.

It was at that point that the Guardia di Finanza intervened, arresting both Da Fiume and the emissaries of the Mexican cartel in February 2020.

It was never known on whose behalf Da Fiume was buying the drugs. But these arrests did not stop the drug traffic coming from South America to Catania, still considered a privileged point of arrival for Latin American criminal organizations.

Source: Il Post


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