A Step Forward to Dismantle the Clan “Casalesi”

September 2, Naples – Millions of euros in properties held by the owner of a waste disposal company have been confiscated by the Italian Police on Tuesday.

Cipriano Chianese is under investigation for having allowed the Napoletan mafia, the so-called “Camorra”, to use his garbage dumps. Also Roberto Saviano, the Italian writer author of the global best-seller Gomorrah, has indicated him as a powerful exponent of the “Casalesi” clan. Chianese has now been put under house arrest for three years.

The assets sequestered have a total value of over 80 million euros and they consist, besides cash and shares, of several apartments in Rome and Caserta, a town near Naples, a luxurious hotel situated on the coast of Formia and other real estates.

In July the police had already closed a number of illegal dumps managed by the Casalesi clan. This is considered to be part of a greater effort to destroy the Camorra family, whose notoriety has deeply increased after the publication of Saviano’s book – nowadays become also a Cannes-winning movie.

The clan, named after the town of Casal di Principe, near Naples, is considered to be one of the most powerful in the zone.

In Gomorra, Saviano offers an accurate description on how it deadly controls the racket of the area, together with all the business involving drugs, toxic waste disposals, construction and, none the less, garments industry. "A confederation bringing together all the Camorra families in Caserta province (which is) made up of violent company bosses, killer managers, builders and landowners, each with his own armed gang, all tied to economic interests in most sectors" this is how Saviano describes the clan. According to the writer’s investigations, the Casalesi have links also in Central and Northern Italy, as well as in Eastern Europe.

                                                                                                                              (M.M.)