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.
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