Ex-mayor among 13 arrested for Mob ties

(ANSA) - Naples, July 14 - Carabinieri military police on Tuesday arrested 13 suspected members and supporters of the Zagaria faction of the powerful Casalesi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra mafia.
    Among those arrested are former Caserta mayor Pio Del Gaudio from Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party and two ex-members of the Campania regional council.
    They were named as Tommaso Barbato, formerly of the Christian Democratic UDEUR party, and Angelo Polverino, from Berlusconi's now-defunct People of Freedom (PdL) party.
    Also in handcuffs was real estate builder Giuseppe Fontana, who allegedly paid Polverino 30,000 euros in 2010 and Del Gaudio 20,000 euros in 2011 in off-the-books financing for their successful election campaigns.
    Investigators say Fontana was promised public contracts in return.
    The suspects face charges of mafia association, corruption, falsifying property deeds, tampering with public contracts, and illegal party financing.
    Police also seized bank accounts worth 11 million euros.
    The arrests came as part of a probe into corruption in Campania region water utilities and illicit financing of local politicians.