Over 100 Carabinieri police officers
on Friday carried out a sweeping operation to arrest 13 people
suspected of Mafia association and drug trafficking.
The operation called 'Leonidi bis' and coordinated by Catania
anti-mafia investigators DDA followed an 18-month-long
investigation and cracked down on the local 'Santapaola
Ercolano' clan, investigative sources said.
Investigators believe a generational conflict was pitting the
clan's younger members against seasoned bosses.
Many of the established bosses have been detained for years in
prisons across Italy but were nevertheless giving orders over
the phone to manage the clan's businesses, investigative sources
said.
They thus continued to impart directions on how to manage
proceeds of illegal activities, among other things, by
communicating with "free members through phones they had
illicitly obtained and were able to keep in prison", something
which "would prove the absolute accessibility of penitentiary
institutions", the sources stressed.
Bosses involved in the investigation include Salvatore
Battaglia, the historic leader of the group based in the
Villaggio Sant'Agata district of Catania, together with his
brother Santo, and the protagonist of a bloody season in the
1990s.
He has already been convicted on charges of Mafia association
and murder.
Police seized several weapons, munitions, one kilo of cocaine
and six of hashish during the operation, the sources said.
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