Italian police arrest 19 people in massive probe targeting mafia links to Milan soccer 'ultra' fans - 01/10/2024Source : https://www.wfmj.com/
Italian police arrested 19 people, accused of criminal ties with the powerful ‘Ndrangheta mafia group, in a move that decimated the fan clubs backing Serie A teams Inter Milan and AC Milan.Prosecutors said at a press conference on Monday that possible charges include criminal association, with the use of “mafia methods,” extortion, assault and other serious offenses.
According to the wide investigation, the criminal ring was linked to ‘
Ndrangheta – the Italian mafia organization that has emerged in recent years as one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the world, rivaling the better-known Sicilian mob.
Prosecutors allege that the suspects have attempted to take control of all the lucrative business activities around Milan’s Giuseppe Meazza stadium — also known as San Siro – including parking, food, tickets and souvenir sales. Investigators said that some of the suspects might also have been involved in drug trafficking.
Police searched the houses of over 50 people, including Giancarlo Lombardi, a once top AC Milan fan known as “
The Baron,” as well as that of Antonio Bellocco, a former local ’Ndrangheta boss who was killed a few weeks ago.
Among those arrested were Luca Lucci and Renato Bosetti, leaders of the AC Milan and Inter Milan “ultras” fan groups respectively. Lucci had been previously convicted for drug-related charges.
Christian Rosiello, described by local media as the bodyguard of popular Italian rapper Fedez, was also among the detained.
“This investigation shows the risks of infiltration creeping into professional and non-professional soccer by organized crime,” said Italy’s anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Melillo. “We need to stop pretending not to see these risks.”
Milan prosecutor Marcello Viola clarified that Milan’s two soccer clubs are “offended parties” in the investigation, having put in place rules to prevent wrongdoing.
“But they will also have to prove that they have severed any relationship with deviant supporters,” Viola added.
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Source: lindependant.fr
The leaders of the ultras of the two Milan clubs were among those arrested.
On Monday 30 September, the Italian police carried out a major operation, against a backdrop of mafia infiltration, against the ‘ultras’ of the AC Milan and Inter Milan football clubs, suspected of controlling a whole range of lucrative activities around the stadiums.
The police and customs authorities arrested 19 people and carried out wide-ranging searches at the end of a ‘maximum investigation’ led by the anti-mafia prosecutor's office in Milan (north). The investigation uncovered ‘the existence of criminal infiltration within the ultras involving the main leaders’ of these supporters' associations, according to a statement from the city's public prosecutor.
A police source told AFP that the leaders of the ultras of the two clubs in the Lombardy capital, Luca Lucci (AC) and Renato Bosetti (Inter), were among those arrested.
Some of the defendants are facing lengthy prison sentences for mafia-style criminal conspiracy. The others are being prosecuted for extortion, forgery and use of forgeries, and intentional violence.
This operation comes barely a month after the death of Antonio Bellocco, an influential Inter Milan fan and member of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia. He had been stabbed by Andrea Beretta, one of Bosetti's predecessors, on 4 September in a Milan suburb during a brawl.
The death of Antonio Bellocco illustrates the presence of the mafia among the radical supporters' groups in Italian football, attracted by the income derived from the illegal sale of tickets and parking spaces, catering and drug trafficking.
Andrea Beretta, who has multiple convictions for violence and drug trafficking, came to prominence in the Curva Nord at the San Siro stadium after the murder of Vittorio Boiocchi in October 2022.
At the time, the Italian press reported phone taps in which Boiocchi boasted that he earned €80,000 a month from his duties as ultras leader alone.
Two leaders of the Inter Milan ultras, Marco Ferdico and Andrea Beretta, are therefore suspected of ‘criminal association with the aim of favouring the Bellocco mafia clan’, according to the prosecutor's statement.
The AC Milan ultras, based in the Curva Sud, are not accused of Mafia offences, however, said Marcello Viola, Milan's public prosecutor, at a press conference, ‘even though there have been a series of attempts, which have never led to agreements, with people close to organised crime’.
When questioned by AFP, Mr Viola did not specify how much money the ultras of the two teams made from their activities, merely mentioning an anonymous businessman who managed a car park and was extorted €4,000 a month.
The prosecutor said that neither Inter nor Milan, nor any member of the management of the two clubs, were being investigated by the authorities, who considered that the two clubs had been harmed by the alleged criminal behaviour of those arrested.
‘It would be wrong to say that all ultras are criminals, but it is clear to everyone that a significant proportion of ultras are involved in criminal activities’, said Giovanni Melillo, the head of Italy's anti-mafia and anti-terrorism authority.
Lucca Lucci
Renato Bosetti
Yesterday at 2:30 pm by UFW Maltchickers
