The CPL Concordia cooperative
paid the Casalesi clan of the Camorra more than 23 million euros
in bribes from public funds obtained for methane contracts in
the province of Caserta, ANSA sources said Friday.
The extent of the Naples' crime gang's lucrative takings
in the methane business emerged as Carabinieri arrested six
people and disclosed that former parliamentarian Lorenzo Diana
is under investigation in the probe of the racket.
Diana, a former senator for Premier Matteo Renzi's
centre-left Democratic Party (PD), acted as a "facilitator" for
relations between CPL and the vicious Casalesi clan in Caserta
province prosecutors said. Naples Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli
said Diana had " a role of absolute importance".
The agreement between CPL senior managers and the
mobsters dated to as far abck as 2000 and was mediated also by
Antonio Piccolo, a businessman closely linked to underworld
circles led by the Camorra kingpin Michele Zagaria, the sources
said.
Antonio Iovine, a senior member of the Casalesi clan,
made the arrests possible by turning state's evidence.
CPL took over the concession for providing methane to
seven administrative districts after the firm originally holding
the concession, Consorzio Eurogas, was pushed out and forced to
hand over the concession for free following Camorra
intimidation, said the sources.
Clan affiliates were given jobs at the cooperative and
CPL did not bill Camorra boss Michele Zagaria and his family for
gas consumption worth 47,000 euros, said the sources.
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