News from Italy

[scagghiuni]

Police ‘investigating’ suspected Italian mafia money launderer
Reports he planned to launder “billions” for mafia associates
Jacob Borg
December 8, 2020


An Italian national suspected of planning to launder “billions” for mafia associates is being investigated by the Financial Crimes Investigation Department, a police spokesman confirmed.

Roberto Recordare is the owner of two companies in Malta – Golem Malta Limited and Recordare Holding.

The two companies are ostensibly in the software business. Golem’s Italian website describes it as a software provider to local public administration entities in Sicily.

According to Italian media reports, wire taps captured Recordare speaking about his interests in Malta and mocking the death of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, days after she was killed by a car bomb in Bidnija, in October 2017.

Contacted by Times of Malta, a police spokesman confirmed an investigation was underway by the anti-money laundering unit but declined to provide further details.

Recordare told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that he only learned of the money-laundering allegations from Italian media reports.

He reportedly referred to the whole matter as a “farce”.

Recordare told ICIJ that the “hypothetical bank transactions have nothing to do with the mafia and relate to my consulting services for third parties… managed within international contexts.”

Public records show the two companies controlled by Recordare banked with Bank of Valletta, according to the last available accounts filed for Golem Malta Limited and Recordare Holding for 2017.

When contacted by Times of Malta, a BOV official said the bank was not in a position to divulge information relating to any of its customers.

The official said, however, that during the past 18 months BOV had closed accounts of many personal and company banking customers whose operations did not fit into the bank’s risk framework.

Both companies in question have their registered addresses at RSM Malta in Żebbuġ, who also audit the companies.

Apart from his interests in Malta, Recordare is also believed to have established a web of bank accounts across the globe in jurisdictions known for their lax anti-money laundering controls.

Reports say Italian investigators suspect Recordare was prepared to move some €36 billion on behalf of mafia clans as part of a wider €136 billion laundering scheme.

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/ ... rer.837632

according to a maltese turncoat sicilian mafia supplied the explosive for caruana galizia murder, i'm almost sure italian mafia groups are also involved along local politicians

[scagghiuni]

Is the Italian mafia involved in Daphne’s assassination?

https://newsbook.com.mt/en/italian-mafi ... n-cassola/

[Strax]

according to a maltese turncoat sicilian mafia supplied the explosive for caruana galizia murder, i'm almost sure italian mafia groups are also involved along local politicians

Italian mafia groups basically control organized crime in Malta , they had something to do with the murder for sure.

[scagghiuni]

Mafia, 13 arrests in Matteo Messina Denaro’s clan

Arrests in the fiefdom of the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro. In Calatafimi Segesta, where it is said, the inaction of the old Don Ciccio Messina Denaro began in the sacristy of a church, the patriarch of Belice who died in 1998 and where his son later joined him, the head of Cosa Nostra drilled wanted since 1993. Mafia and elections, mafia and management of hiring and handling matters, mafia and territorial control. It is the cross-section of the blitz that this morning wiped out the mafia clan of the Municipality of Calatafimi Segesta. Thirteen arrests were carried out by the Central Police Operations Service and by the mobile teams of Trapani and Palermo. Investigated the mayor Antonino Accardo, for electoral corruption with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia, another white-collar worker was instead arrested, Salvatore Barone, manager in the public transport branch, most recently at the top of ATM, an urban transport company in Trapani. The investigations were coordinated by the prosecutor of Palermo, to sign the arrest were the prosecutor of Palermo Francesco Lo Voi, the deputy Paolo Guido and the deputy prosecutors Pierangelo Padova and Francesca Dessì, the scenario is that of the new bosses who govern the “system Messina Denaro, there is also a prison police officer on duty in the Palermo prison of Pagliarelli: he is accused of disclosing confidential information. In handcuffs. The new head of the mafia family is Nicolò Pidone, 57, a former seasonal worker of the Forestry who had already been arrested in 2012, after having served his sentence he was back in the saddle. It was the reference point for anyone with a problem to solve. Police wiretapping revealed meetings and contacts. “We have disrupted a powerful and stable mafia organization in the area – says the prefect Francesco Messina, the central anti-crime director of the State Police – an organization that operated from every point of view, including political, administrative and entrepreneurial economic. It is the” method “Messina Denaro, = says the head of the anti-crime of the Interior Ministry – that of a mafia back to being mediation and business. Cosa Nostra from Trapani is the humus of sustenance of the fugitive, which exploits the intrinsic characteristics of the organization”.

https://www.ruetir.com/2020/12/15/mafia ... aros-clan/

[scagghiuni]

Mafia, blow to the Laudani and Santapaola clans: 18 arrests

https://livesicilia.it/2020/12/16/nomi- ... 8-arresti/

[aleksandrored]

Trapani, “manager” of Cosa Nostra arrested. He had built the cell of little Di Matteo

Giuseppe Costa had been free for three years, after being in prison for twenty years. With the silence he had earned promotion on the pitch.

After being in prison for twenty years for being among the kidnappers of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, he is now back in prison accused of becoming the head of the Mafia family in Custonaci, in the Trapani area. Giuseppe Costa, 57, for the anti-mafia investigators is like a sort of manager on behalf of the fugitive boss Matteo Messina Denaro. The investigations of the mafia hunters have seen him dealing with business and politics, sitting at summits with the mafia bosses of Trapani, resorting to violent ways to collect credits from bosses who ended up in prison. He had been free for three years.

During the night he was captured by Dia agents and by the Carabinieri of the Provincial Operational Department of Trapani on charges of mafia association. To order the arrest of him an order signed by the investigating judge of the Court of Palermo, judge Morosini at the request of the prosecutors of the district prosecutor De Leo and Ferrara. Costa was indicated as one of the main subjects of the Trapani area able to mobilize consensus and support for Cosa Nostra.

A heavy name in the history of the bloodiest and most violent mafia, Costa was one of the protagonists of the kidnapping of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of the repentant Santino. Giuseppe was 13 years old when he was kidnapped by Cosa Nostra in November 1993 to induce his father to retract the accusations and revelations he was making about Riina and the 1992 massacres. The mafia held him prisoner until 11 January 1996, when he was killed and his body, now tried by a long detention, in which he was attached to the wall like an animal, was dissolved in acid. An act of great brutality. Costa remained in prison between January 1997 and March 2017.

It was Matteo Messina Denaro, the super wanted one of Cosa Nostra today, a fugitive since 1993, who asked the mafia leader of Trapani, Vincenzo Virga, to find a safe place to keep Giuseppe Di Matteo prisoner. For a period of time, little Giuseppe was hidden in a house in Costa, in the hamlet of Purgatorio, in the municipality of Custonaci. He took care of building a sort of cell in which he was kept segregated for several months, while Costa also served as a sitter for the kidnappers.

Released from prison he was welcomed as a sort of prodigal son for not having spoken: a man of honor promoted on the field. When he returned free he had no difficulty in re-entering the social fabric of Custonaci, where, despite the brutality of his behavior, he was welcomed as an exceptional guest at meetings and weddings. From 2017 until a few days ago, Dia and the carabinieri monitored him, highlighting that he had gone to occupy an important position, at the head of the Custonaci mafia family, especially after marrying the niece of the killer Vito Mazzara.

Always present at mafia summits, he dealt with the control of companies, in particular those for the production of cement, companies for the sale of agricultural fuels, electoral campaigns and voting sales. The facts disputed to Giuseppe Costa date back to a few weeks ago, when the wiretapping heard him threaten entrepreneurs who did not bow to his wishes. Dialogues have also been intercepted with the wife of the life prisoner Vito Mazzara, well aware of the mafia dynamics of her husband and nephew.

In Custonaci last summer the municipal administration, taking an ancient proposal out of the drawers, entitled a square in the suburbs to the little Di Matteo, during the ceremony, however, they forgot to remember that Di Matteo was kept seized a few kilometers from that place.

[Etna]

Mafia, the super boss Ciccio La Rocca has died

CALTAGIRONE (CT) – Francesco La Rocca died at the Bari polyclinic in home detention. The news was confirmed to LiveSicilia, the boss of Cosa Nostra has died after a long illness that has seen him in recent months, hospitalized several times.

The Godfather
The godfather of San Michele di Ganzaria, undisputed head of the Mafia family of Caltagirone, had been released from prison following the worsening of his health, obtaining the provisional suspension of his sentence in prison. From the Covid19 emergency, during which the lawyer Angelino Alessandro obtained permission from the supervisory magistrate to transfer to his home in San Michele di Ganzaria, the godfather La Rocca, he was hospitalized several times for the complications of his clinical condition. Taken back to prison, before his death he had been admitted to the Bari Polyclinic for the aggravation of the clinical picture.

A Boss's Story
Her "family" still founded her boy, ousting ramacca's godfather in power
Calogero Conti.

Of the "Ziu Cicciu" some repentants speak as "a great mediator" with a nose to attract politicians and entrepreneurs. In 2000 it would be back in operation: after the Mafia war of 1998 it tries to put together the pieces of the Ennese, Agrigentina and Nissena Mafia. But with his arrest in the Dionysysus blitz, his criminal rise was blocked from prison.
A repentant in these years would have vaticinato a not easy future for the "family" after the death of boss Francesco La Rocca. According to leaked indiscretions, the repentant reported that "u respect up to what campa is pu ziu Cicciu, mortu iddu..." clear reference to balances that could undergo a sharp change on the territory. Including seeing the aspirations of the Laudans to take over the area "rekindle" some say never sopite.

The family, we learn from the lawyer, has already obtained the go-to for the transfer of the body that could be buried in San Michele di Ganzaria.

https://livesicilia.it/2020/12/22/mafia ... refresh_ce

[CabriniGreen]

I thought this was pretty brazen..... Cartel setting up shop in Sicily.....




INVESTIGATIONS · INSIDE THE SINALOA CARTEL’S MOVE TOWARD EUROPE


Inside the Sinaloa Cartel’s Move Toward Europe
A figurine of Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, at a souvenir stand in Sinaloa, Mexico. El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and was long considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. Credit: Forbidden Stories
by Cecilia Anesi and Giulio Rubino (IrpiMedia)
15 December 2020

Police agencies have long known that Mexican drug cartels help supply Europe’s nearly US$10 billion annual cocaine habit, but acknowledge they have little idea about the workings of these highly organized and well-financed operations.

But now, a recent Italian police investigation, code-named Operation Halcon, has provided the most in-depth look yet into how Mexico’s leading drug traffickers, the Sinaloa Cartel, do business in Europe. IrpiMedia, OCCRP’s Italian partner, obtained access to police files and surveillance reports that show the cartel’s methods in unprecedented detail.

About This Report
This article was produced in collaboration with “The Cartel Project,” an investigation coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories. It involves 60 journalists from 25 organizations in 18 countries and involves various aspects of Mexican cartel violence, including the murders of journalists in Veracruz state. Forbidden Stories is a nonprofit group dedicated to continuing the work of journalists silenced by homicide.

Operation Halcon started in early 2019, at a time when Europe was being flooded with cocaine from Latin America. The Sinaloa Cartel, a global leader in cocaine sales with operations in at least 50 countries, was looking for new routes into Italy as a way to expand its European presence. Mexican cartels already sold synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine on the continent, but Colombian, Albanian, and Italian organized crime have historically dominated Europe’s cocaine trade.

Most drugs arrive in Europe by ship, usually to large ports with good connections to other major cities. Sinaloa wanted to establish another route: Bulk shipment by private planes flying into small airports in Southern Italy, with the drugs then trans-shipped to other parts of the country.

Catania, a mid-size city on Sicily’s eastern coast, was chosen for a test. The area, which was rapidly becoming a tourist destination, offered an international airport and a special draw: an airport official willing to help.

The Informant
The cartel’s plan didn’t stay secret for long. The Organized Crime Investigation Group (GICO), the anti-mafia unit of Italy’s financial police in Catania, learned from an informant in January 2019 that Sinaloa was planning to fly in cocaine from Colombia.

The tip seemed odd. Catania isn’t known as a hub for international drug trafficking, and direct drug flights using private planes are generally unknown in Italy. Catania–Fontanarossa Airport had only limited international service, while the local port sees relatively little commercial traffic.


But the local head of the GICO, Captain Pablo Leccese, took the report seriously. In less than three months, the unit identified the cartel’s players in southern Italy: Guatemalans Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez. The airport insider was identified only by
Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez.
Ortega and Villagran were working with another Guatemalan, Luis Fernando Morales Hernandez, alias “El Suegro,” or “The Father-in-Law,” who would make arrangements for the shipment in Colombia.

The police informant added more names to the file. The cell operating in Catania was under the direction of a shadowy Sinaloa leader known as “El Flaco,” or “Skinny,” whom police identified as second-in-command of the entire cartel after drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia.

El Flaco was soon to meet Don Señor to work out the logistics for handling the cocaine flight and the distribution of its cargo to buyers from various organized crime groups who would come for it.

The Italian police would be waiting for them.


Credit: Aurélien Sesmat
On June 1, 2019, El Flaco landed in Catania with a female companion. After the couple checked in at the luxury seaside Romano Palace Hotel, the police learned his real name for the first time: José Angel Rivera Zazueta.

The following day El Flaco, Don Señor, and their associates met in a hotel restaurant to go over the plan. A private plane would fly from Mexico to Cartagena, Colombia, where it would be loaded with cocaine. After refueling in Cape Verde, it would land in Catania, where Don Señor would shift the drugs to a vehicle, avoid customs, and head to northern Italy — likely to Verona.

Two elements of the plan were a surprise to the financial police: The contraband was to be flown by a pilot usually entrusted with similar tasks by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the legendary former Sinaloa leader. And the size of the “test” was staggering.

“We know this Sinaloa cell had already imported cocaine to Europe and that they already had 1.5 tons of cocaine ready to be sent after a couple of hundred kilos of trial,” Leccese told IrpiMedia.

On arrival in Italy, the drugs would be sold to the Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, which is widely considered to be Europe’s most powerful cocaine distributor. Mafia involvement made sense. Sinaloa is known to forge partnerships with existing organizations, rather than trying to steamroll its way into new markets.

Cops bugged a restaurant where the narco traffickers would meet, and settled in to listen. What they heard was a revelation. Italian law enforcement seldom gets an inside look at Mexican cartels, but now El Flaco was laying it all out for his associates, unaware that his tutorials were reaching the ears of the police.

Catania police heard boasts of 35 small planes each week leaving Venezuela to Chetumal, a resort town on the border of Mexico and Belize. Each allegedly carried 500 to 800 kilograms of cocaine — more than half of the world’s total annual cocaine production — and all with the blessing of the Venezuelan military.

The flights likely came from San Felipe, in northwest Venezuelan state of Zulia, where there are so many traffickers that locals call their town “Sinaloa,” according to the InSightCrime website.

The restaurant talk also turned to more personal news. The traffickers spoke about Villagran’s family, which was said to handle two to three tons of cocaine per month. They spoke of “El Sordo” (The Deaf), who is now part of Mexico’s Guardia Nacional, and of “El Calvo” (The Bald), a key cartel operative in Canada.

Tales were told about El Flaco’s two girlfriends, one a relative of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and about his father, who supposedly owned thousands of currency exchange shops, as well as his alleged contacts in the CIA.

Although the Italian investigators couldn’t confirm much of the restaurant talk, they were fascinated.

Credit: Amrai Coen
A Sinaloa Cartel member testing a weapon after repairing it in a small town in Sinaloa, Mexico.
A Little “Help” From the Police
In mid-June, the informant told police that El Flaco had a 300-kilogram test shipment ready in Colombia and would send it to Catania as soon as the cartel could line up a facilitator in Cartagena.

On June 18, Don Señor met the cartel members in Rome. As police listened in, El Flaco offered to follow the test run with another 1,500 kilograms via private jet from Cartagena, through Mexico, to Catania.

But the cartel encountered unforeseen problems. It had trouble finding someone in Cartagena to facilitate the shipment. The whole operation was accumulating delays.

So the police decided to “help” them.

Working with the Antidrug Central Directorate, a police body that coordinates antidrug operations in Italy, and the Italian antidrug attache in Bogotá, Captain Leccese brought in two Latino informants based in Italy, code-named Rodriguez and El Cholo, along with a Colombian Dirección de Antinarcóticos undercover officer, known as Lucas, to pose as drug dealers.

In late August, Villagran and Morales took El Cholo and Lucas to meet suppliers in the mountains in southern Colombia’s Cauca region. After passing through a checkpoint, where they were likely photographed, they reached a place in the jungle where traffickers confiscated their cellphones. From there, they walked through the jungle to a cocaine refinery.


Credit: Guardia di Finanza
Cocaine prepared by Colombian suppliers.
El Abuelo, “The Grandfather,” a former member of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, showed them around, displaying drugs being cooked and shipments ready to go out.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez was halfway around the world, meeting El Flaco in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Police in Catania had learned that El Flaco lived mainly in Asia, where he managed an important part of the cartel’s synthetic drug business.

The undercover operation soon encountered logistical problems of its own. The Colombian cocaine cooks delayed shipment to the cartel until October. Still more time was lost when a national strike closed Colombia’s airports.

Once again, the Italian and Colombian police stepped in to help. The informant, El Cholo, offered to provide a “better alternative” using his contacts at the Bogotá airport to place the drugs on an airline flight.

The Delivery
Finally, on January 9, 2020, around 400 kilograms of cocaine arrived in Catania aboard a passenger flight. Don Señor moved it to a safe house at the edge of the city.

Don Señor, Ortega, Rodriguez, and El Cholo were on their way to inspect the cargo when El Flaco called from Cancun for an update. Again, police listened in as Ortega checked the shipment and produced El Flaco’s written instructions about how the drug should be distributed.

“So the compensation is 32,” he said, referring to the number of cocaine bricks Don Señor would get for his labor. That much cocaine would be worth nearly $1 million in Europe.

“The compensation is better than a payment,” Rodriguez said with a laugh.

Cartels like to compensate collaborators outside their organization by giving them product, rather than money. Cash payments would mean the smugglers would have to divulge business information, such as profits, to outsiders.

“My uncle told me he needs 20 in Genoa,” Ortega continued. “And we need three in Verona if possible.”

Again, the traffickers’ work didn’t go smoothly. An emissary of a Chinese criminal organization based near Milan but with ties to Mexico, already angry at the delayed delivery, demanded a kilogram to test. If his organization liked the quality, he would want 50 kilograms upfront.

The Mexicans stalled. “Charlie,” an Italian working for a mysterious figure referred to only as “Tocayo,” was their priority for this load because he wanted to make a far bigger purchase.

The plan, Ortega told El Flaco in a call, was to take three kilograms to Charlie in Verona, followed by deliveries of 20 kilograms at a time, for a total sale of up to 300 kilograms.

On January 16, Ortega and Villagran flew to Verona to meet “El Arquitecto,” an important cartel figure who was coming from Mexico to oversee the sale, and met Don Señor, who had brought his order. Again, Italian police managed to listen in.

investigations/Felix-and-Tito-Verona.jpg
Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez in Verona, where they traveled from southern Italy for a cocaine deal.
An indictment later filed in Catania describes El Arqui as El Flaco’s representative, sent to guarantee the quality of the Sinaloa cocaine. Villagran told his associates that El Arqui wanted to test the product before delivering it.

But the traffickers couldn’t catch a break. El Arqui and Charlie were delayed by snow. On January 22, they reached Milan and went straight to meet the buyer, Charlie’s boss. Later, they delivered 35,000 euros for the initial three kilograms to Ortega and Villagran near Verona.

Italy’s Financial Police, who were watching both groups all along, arrested Ortega and Villagran in Verona. They were charged with international drug trafficking and distribution and taken into custody, but have not yet been put on trial.

The ’Ndrangheta
The police also set up a roadblock as an excuse to stop the Milan contingent’s Mercedes E350 and identify — but not arrest — El Arqui and Charlie.

El Arqui proved to be Jalisco-born Salvador Ascensio Chavez. Charlie is Mauro Da Fiume, an Italian from San Remo. Both are experienced drug traffickers.

Records obtained by The Cartel Project show that El Arqui, identified by Canada’s iNFOnews as a Mexican architect married to a Canadian, served a three-year prison term in Canada after being convicted for importing 2.2 kilograms of cocaine in 2001. His record was erased after he was granted a pardon.

In 2010, El Arqui was caught smuggling 97 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a fruit-grinding machine imported from Argentina, and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2014. In 2017 he was granted release and deported to Mexico.

In a Canadian parole board document, authorities summarize El Arqui’s admission of guilt and his promise to go straight: “You admitted associating with cartels and/or organized crime in Mexico,” the Canadians wrote. “You told the Board that you have a large positive community support in your country and are planning to design and build homes.”

The document doesn’t mention plans to supervise Sinaloa cocaine sales in Europe.

investigations/Sinaloa-Group-Map.jpg
Credit: Guardia di Finanza
A map put together by Italian authorities investigating Mauro Da Fiume, an experienced Italian drug trafficker.
Da Fiume owned a restaurant and two import-export companies in Barcelona. His involvement in the deal suggests the drugs were destined for one or more ’Ndrangheta clans.

Spanish police arrested da Fiume on February 4 on behalf of Catania authorities for being part of a “criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and possession” which planned to move “huge amounts of cocaine” through “a criminal organization operating in Italy, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.”

A list maintained by the police agency puts Da Fiume among “people linked to the ‘Ndrangheta,” and identified him as having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mauro Da Fiume was allegedly associated with a long-running operation trafficking cocaine between Italy, France, Spain and Morocco. That operation, exposed in 2015 by the Genoa anti-mafia bureau’s “Operation Trait d’Union,” dealt with the Piromalli-Molè clan’s infiltration of Genoa and the movement of drugs through the French Riviera.

Da Fiume was not arrested in Operation Trait d’Union, but was identified as the right-hand man of clan boss Antonio Magnoli.

Ascensio Chavez, El Flaco, and Morales remain at large. They will soon be tried in absentia in Catania for international drug trafficking.

Antonio Baquero (OCCRP), Marco Oved (Toronto Star), Mathieu Tortlieur (Proceso), and Paolo Frosina (IrpiMedia) contributed reporting.

[CabriniGreen]

I thought this was pretty brazen..... Cartel setting up shop in Sicily.....




INVESTIGATIONS · INSIDE THE SINALOA CARTEL’S MOVE TOWARD EUROPE


Inside the Sinaloa Cartel’s Move Toward Europe
A figurine of Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, at a souvenir stand in Sinaloa, Mexico. El Chapo, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, and was long considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. Credit: Forbidden Stories
by Cecilia Anesi and Giulio Rubino (IrpiMedia)
15 December 2020

Police agencies have long known that Mexican drug cartels help supply Europe’s nearly US$10 billion annual cocaine habit, but acknowledge they have little idea about the workings of these highly organized and well-financed operations.

But now, a recent Italian police investigation, code-named Operation Halcon, has provided the most in-depth look yet into how Mexico’s leading drug traffickers, the Sinaloa Cartel, do business in Europe. IrpiMedia, OCCRP’s Italian partner, obtained access to police files and surveillance reports that show the cartel’s methods in unprecedented detail.

About This Report
This article was produced in collaboration with “The Cartel Project,” an investigation coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories. It involves 60 journalists from 25 organizations in 18 countries and involves various aspects of Mexican cartel violence, including the murders of journalists in Veracruz state. Forbidden Stories is a nonprofit group dedicated to continuing the work of journalists silenced by homicide.

Operation Halcon started in early 2019, at a time when Europe was being flooded with cocaine from Latin America. The Sinaloa Cartel, a global leader in cocaine sales with operations in at least 50 countries, was looking for new routes into Italy as a way to expand its European presence. Mexican cartels already sold synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine on the continent, but Colombian, Albanian, and Italian organized crime have historically dominated Europe’s cocaine trade.

Most drugs arrive in Europe by ship, usually to large ports with good connections to other major cities. Sinaloa wanted to establish another route: Bulk shipment by private planes flying into small airports in Southern Italy, with the drugs then trans-shipped to other parts of the country.

Catania, a mid-size city on Sicily’s eastern coast, was chosen for a test. The area, which was rapidly becoming a tourist destination, offered an international airport and a special draw: an airport official willing to help.

The Informant
The cartel’s plan didn’t stay secret for long. The Organized Crime Investigation Group (GICO), the anti-mafia unit of Italy’s financial police in Catania, learned from an informant in January 2019 that Sinaloa was planning to fly in cocaine from Colombia.

The tip seemed odd. Catania isn’t known as a hub for international drug trafficking, and direct drug flights using private planes are generally unknown in Italy. Catania–Fontanarossa Airport had only limited international service, while the local port sees relatively little commercial traffic.


But the local head of the GICO, Captain Pablo Leccese, took the report seriously. In less than three months, the unit identified the cartel’s players in southern Italy: Guatemalans Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez. The airport insider was identified only by
Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez.
Ortega and Villagran were working with another Guatemalan, Luis Fernando Morales Hernandez, alias “El Suegro,” or “The Father-in-Law,” who would make arrangements for the shipment in Colombia.

The police informant added more names to the file. The cell operating in Catania was under the direction of a shadowy Sinaloa leader known as “El Flaco,” or “Skinny,” whom police identified as second-in-command of the entire cartel after drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia.

El Flaco was soon to meet Don Señor to work out the logistics for handling the cocaine flight and the distribution of its cargo to buyers from various organized crime groups who would come for it.

The Italian police would be waiting for them.


Credit: Aurélien Sesmat
On June 1, 2019, El Flaco landed in Catania with a female companion. After the couple checked in at the luxury seaside Romano Palace Hotel, the police learned his real name for the first time: José Angel Rivera Zazueta.

The following day El Flaco, Don Señor, and their associates met in a hotel restaurant to go over the plan. A private plane would fly from Mexico to Cartagena, Colombia, where it would be loaded with cocaine. After refueling in Cape Verde, it would land in Catania, where Don Señor would shift the drugs to a vehicle, avoid customs, and head to northern Italy — likely to Verona.

Two elements of the plan were a surprise to the financial police: The contraband was to be flown by a pilot usually entrusted with similar tasks by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the legendary former Sinaloa leader. And the size of the “test” was staggering.

“We know this Sinaloa cell had already imported cocaine to Europe and that they already had 1.5 tons of cocaine ready to be sent after a couple of hundred kilos of trial,” Leccese told IrpiMedia.

On arrival in Italy, the drugs would be sold to the Calabrian mafia, the ’Ndrangheta, which is widely considered to be Europe’s most powerful cocaine distributor. Mafia involvement made sense. Sinaloa is known to forge partnerships with existing organizations, rather than trying to steamroll its way into new markets.

Cops bugged a restaurant where the narco traffickers would meet, and settled in to listen. What they heard was a revelation. Italian law enforcement seldom gets an inside look at Mexican cartels, but now El Flaco was laying it all out for his associates, unaware that his tutorials were reaching the ears of the police.

Catania police heard boasts of 35 small planes each week leaving Venezuela to Chetumal, a resort town on the border of Mexico and Belize. Each allegedly carried 500 to 800 kilograms of cocaine — more than half of the world’s total annual cocaine production — and all with the blessing of the Venezuelan military.

The flights likely came from San Felipe, in northwest Venezuelan state of Zulia, where there are so many traffickers that locals call their town “Sinaloa,” according to the InSightCrime website.

The restaurant talk also turned to more personal news. The traffickers spoke about Villagran’s family, which was said to handle two to three tons of cocaine per month. They spoke of “El Sordo” (The Deaf), who is now part of Mexico’s Guardia Nacional, and of “El Calvo” (The Bald), a key cartel operative in Canada.

Tales were told about El Flaco’s two girlfriends, one a relative of the late drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and about his father, who supposedly owned thousands of currency exchange shops, as well as his alleged contacts in the CIA.

Although the Italian investigators couldn’t confirm much of the restaurant talk, they were fascinated.

Credit: Amrai Coen
A Sinaloa Cartel member testing a weapon after repairing it in a small town in Sinaloa, Mexico.
A Little “Help” From the Police
In mid-June, the informant told police that El Flaco had a 300-kilogram test shipment ready in Colombia and would send it to Catania as soon as the cartel could line up a facilitator in Cartagena.

On June 18, Don Señor met the cartel members in Rome. As police listened in, El Flaco offered to follow the test run with another 1,500 kilograms via private jet from Cartagena, through Mexico, to Catania.

But the cartel encountered unforeseen problems. It had trouble finding someone in Cartagena to facilitate the shipment. The whole operation was accumulating delays.

So the police decided to “help” them.

Working with the Antidrug Central Directorate, a police body that coordinates antidrug operations in Italy, and the Italian antidrug attache in Bogotá, Captain Leccese brought in two Latino informants based in Italy, code-named Rodriguez and El Cholo, along with a Colombian Dirección de Antinarcóticos undercover officer, known as Lucas, to pose as drug dealers.

In late August, Villagran and Morales took El Cholo and Lucas to meet suppliers in the mountains in southern Colombia’s Cauca region. After passing through a checkpoint, where they were likely photographed, they reached a place in the jungle where traffickers confiscated their cellphones. From there, they walked through the jungle to a cocaine refinery.


Credit: Guardia di Finanza
Cocaine prepared by Colombian suppliers.
El Abuelo, “The Grandfather,” a former member of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, showed them around, displaying drugs being cooked and shipments ready to go out.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez was halfway around the world, meeting El Flaco in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Police in Catania had learned that El Flaco lived mainly in Asia, where he managed an important part of the cartel’s synthetic drug business.

The undercover operation soon encountered logistical problems of its own. The Colombian cocaine cooks delayed shipment to the cartel until October. Still more time was lost when a national strike closed Colombia’s airports.

Once again, the Italian and Colombian police stepped in to help. The informant, El Cholo, offered to provide a “better alternative” using his contacts at the Bogotá airport to place the drugs on an airline flight.

The Delivery
Finally, on January 9, 2020, around 400 kilograms of cocaine arrived in Catania aboard a passenger flight. Don Señor moved it to a safe house at the edge of the city.

Don Señor, Ortega, Rodriguez, and El Cholo were on their way to inspect the cargo when El Flaco called from Cancun for an update. Again, police listened in as Ortega checked the shipment and produced El Flaco’s written instructions about how the drug should be distributed.

“So the compensation is 32,” he said, referring to the number of cocaine bricks Don Señor would get for his labor. That much cocaine would be worth nearly $1 million in Europe.

“The compensation is better than a payment,” Rodriguez said with a laugh.

Cartels like to compensate collaborators outside their organization by giving them product, rather than money. Cash payments would mean the smugglers would have to divulge business information, such as profits, to outsiders.

“My uncle told me he needs 20 in Genoa,” Ortega continued. “And we need three in Verona if possible.”

Again, the traffickers’ work didn’t go smoothly. An emissary of a Chinese criminal organization based near Milan but with ties to Mexico, already angry at the delayed delivery, demanded a kilogram to test. If his organization liked the quality, he would want 50 kilograms upfront.

The Mexicans stalled. “Charlie,” an Italian working for a mysterious figure referred to only as “Tocayo,” was their priority for this load because he wanted to make a far bigger purchase.

The plan, Ortega told El Flaco in a call, was to take three kilograms to Charlie in Verona, followed by deliveries of 20 kilograms at a time, for a total sale of up to 300 kilograms.

On January 16, Ortega and Villagran flew to Verona to meet “El Arquitecto,” an important cartel figure who was coming from Mexico to oversee the sale, and met Don Señor, who had brought his order. Again, Italian police managed to listen in.

investigations/Felix-and-Tito-Verona.jpg
Daniel “Tito” Esteban Ortega Ubeda and Felix Ruben Villagran Lopez in Verona, where they traveled from southern Italy for a cocaine deal.
An indictment later filed in Catania describes El Arqui as El Flaco’s representative, sent to guarantee the quality of the Sinaloa cocaine. Villagran told his associates that El Arqui wanted to test the product before delivering it.

But the traffickers couldn’t catch a break. El Arqui and Charlie were delayed by snow. On January 22, they reached Milan and went straight to meet the buyer, Charlie’s boss. Later, they delivered 35,000 euros for the initial three kilograms to Ortega and Villagran near Verona.

Italy’s Financial Police, who were watching both groups all along, arrested Ortega and Villagran in Verona. They were charged with international drug trafficking and distribution and taken into custody, but have not yet been put on trial.

The ’Ndrangheta
The police also set up a roadblock as an excuse to stop the Milan contingent’s Mercedes E350 and identify — but not arrest — El Arqui and Charlie.

El Arqui proved to be Jalisco-born Salvador Ascensio Chavez. Charlie is Mauro Da Fiume, an Italian from San Remo. Both are experienced drug traffickers.

Records obtained by The Cartel Project show that El Arqui, identified by Canada’s iNFOnews as a Mexican architect married to a Canadian, served a three-year prison term in Canada after being convicted for importing 2.2 kilograms of cocaine in 2001. His record was erased after he was granted a pardon.

In 2010, El Arqui was caught smuggling 97 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a fruit-grinding machine imported from Argentina, and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2014. In 2017 he was granted release and deported to Mexico.

In a Canadian parole board document, authorities summarize El Arqui’s admission of guilt and his promise to go straight: “You admitted associating with cartels and/or organized crime in Mexico,” the Canadians wrote. “You told the Board that you have a large positive community support in your country and are planning to design and build homes.”

The document doesn’t mention plans to supervise Sinaloa cocaine sales in Europe.

investigations/Sinaloa-Group-Map.jpg
Credit: Guardia di Finanza
A map put together by Italian authorities investigating Mauro Da Fiume, an experienced Italian drug trafficker.
Da Fiume owned a restaurant and two import-export companies in Barcelona. His involvement in the deal suggests the drugs were destined for one or more ’Ndrangheta clans.

Spanish police arrested da Fiume on February 4 on behalf of Catania authorities for being part of a “criminal association aimed at drug trafficking and possession” which planned to move “huge amounts of cocaine” through “a criminal organization operating in Italy, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.”

A list maintained by the police agency puts Da Fiume among “people linked to the ‘Ndrangheta,” and identified him as having ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mauro Da Fiume was allegedly associated with a long-running operation trafficking cocaine between Italy, France, Spain and Morocco. That operation, exposed in 2015 by the Genoa anti-mafia bureau’s “Operation Trait d’Union,” dealt with the Piromalli-Molè clan’s infiltration of Genoa and the movement of drugs through the French Riviera.

Da Fiume was not arrested in Operation Trait d’Union, but was identified as the right-hand man of clan boss Antonio Magnoli.

Ascensio Chavez, El Flaco, and Morales remain at large. They will soon be tried in absentia in Catania for international drug trafficking.

Antonio Baquero (OCCRP), Marco Oved (Toronto Star), Mathieu Tortlieur (Proceso), and Paolo Frosina (IrpiMedia) contributed reporting.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations ... ard-europe

[Strax]

Italian woman Maria Chindamo murdered by mafia and ‘fed to pigs’

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/ ... d-fed-pigs

[PolackTony]

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations ... ard-europe

Thanks for the post, I agree that this is an interesting turn of events.

[scagghiuni]

12 Cosa Nostra arrests near Agrigento, local politicians involved
Town councillor among those netted by 200 cops

https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2021/0 ... e72b3.html

[CabriniGreen]

Run down on Sicily Top bosses....


https://www.antimafiaduemila.com/home/p ... mafia.html

[scagghiuni]

Rome, bars and pastry shops in the Center run by mafia clans of “Cosa Nostra”: 11 arrests

https://www.italy24news.com/a/2021/01/r ... rests.html

[Strax]

Mafia trial: Turncoat’s daughter, 2, held hostage by clan he betrayed

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mafi ... -5vpnz8wdb