Carabinieri on Thursday
arrested two more people as part of a massive probe into an
suspected mafia organisation that allegedly muscled in on Rome
city contracts in waste management, transportation, and migrant
reception centers.
Rocco Rotolo and Salvatore Ruggiero are accused of mafia
association and are suspected of linking cooperatives controlled
by Roman mobsters with the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta
syndicate.
Ruggiero, whom investigators say is linked to the Mancuso
clan of the Calabrian mob, has been employed since 2009 in a
company called Roma Multiservizi SpA, which is partially owned
by the city of Rome.
Its president since 2013 was Franco Panzironi, who has
been arrested on charges of mafia association, corruption and
bid-rigging.
Panzironi is thought to be the right-hand man of ex
rightwing terrorist and gangster Massimo Carminati, the alleged
leader of the Rome mob who is now also behind bars.
As well, investigators said Panzironi was an employee in
1998-1999 of the June 29 Cooperative led by fellow jailed
suspect Salvatore Buzzi, a former manslaughter convict who
headed several cooperatives implicated in the mafia probe.
Buzzi was wiretapped apparently boasting about how much
profit his gang was making by scamming city reception centres
for refugees and migrants.
"Do you have any idea how much I make on these immigrants?"
Buzzi allegedly said in a wiretap from early 2013 contained in
prosecution documents.
"Drug trafficking is not as profitable. We closed this
year with turnover of 40 million but...our profits all came from
the gypsies (Roma people), the housing emergency and the
immigrants".
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