Investigating magistrates Tuesday
completed a seven-year probe by charging Angelo Grillo, an
office-cleaning magnate allegedly linked to the Camorra, with
ordering the murder of a mobster who tried to extort protection
money.
Grillo has been held in jail since November as part of an
inquiry into extortion involving lucrative contracts with the
Caserta provincial health authority.
Also charged with the Sept. 16, 2006, murder of Angelo
Cortese at Montedecoro were Giorgio and Clemente D'Albenzio, two
brothers aged 54 and 59, both also already in prison and
considered veteran members of the Belforte clan of the Camorra
in the mafia-infested Marcianise area.
Cortese, 41, was gunned down after he asked Grillo for
protection money from Grillo's Cesap cleaning firm, which did
extensive business with provincial administrations and other
public agencies, police sources said.
Police allege that Grillo was at the time close to the
Belforte clan while Cortese was working for the rival Piccolo
clan.
Clan boss Salvatore Belforte reportedly agreed to a request
from Grillo to "remove the problem" and ordered his men to shoot
and kill Cortese, police sources said.
Two members of a four-man hit team that killed Cortese
subsequently turned state's evidence and alleged that Grillo
instigated the slaying.
In 2013, police arrested Belforte and two of the alleged
hitmen for the murder but an earlier indictment against Grillo
and the D'Albenzio brothers was rejected by an appeal court and
the Supreme Court.
Police continued to investigate, leading to the present
indictment.
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