A hitman from Puglia's Sacra Corona
Unita (SCU) mafia turned State's witness for the love of his
wife and newborn daughter, anti-mafia prosecutors said Friday.
Bari native Michele Miccoli, 36, made a 1,000-page
statement in which he confessed to a number of hits and told of
dozens more carried out by the Strisciuglio clan.
He also detailed the clan's drug trafficking and extortion
activities as well as its relationships with other organized
crime rings in Bari.
Miccoli has been in prison almost a decade for robbery and
drug trafficking.
His testimony is being used in the trial of 49 suspects
including clan boss Domenico Strisciuglio and his brothers,
Sigismondo and Vincenzo.
The defendants face mafia association, drug trafficking,
weapons and explosives, aggravated bodily harm, and extortion
charges.
The Strisciuglio brothers were arrested in July 2015 along
with dozens of suspects.
The sweep came after a three-year investigation that
uncovered what prosecutors said is a heavily armed criminal
organization affiliated with the Neapolitan Camorra mafia, with
a network of affiliates both within and outside prison walls.
The clan controlled the drug trade, met publicly in a
piazza to exchange information and discuss strategy, extorted
construction businesses, and infiltrated ultra' supporters of
the Bari soccer team.
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