Following the release of three
nephews of a clan leader of the Camorra criminal organization
and their "accountants", also businessman Paolo Siciliano,
believed to be complicit in their alleged crimes, has been
released.
The suspects had been jailed as part of a Naples anti-mafia
directorate investigation into the infiltration of the Zagaria
clan into the supermarket business.
Siciliano, dubbed the 'king' of food distribution and
boasting well-known brands and numerous retail outlets between
Caserta and Naples, is held to be the partner of Filippo
Capaldo, nephew of the Casalesi clan boss Michele Zagaria, who
has been released from custody after a decision by a Naples
court with which an appeal had been filed by the businessman's
lawyers, Claudio Sgambato and Federico Simoncelli.
The court is a different one from the one that on Feb. 8
ruled to annul a detention order for - thus releasing - the
brothers Filippo, Nicola, and Mario Francesco (sons of Beatrice
Zagaria, Michele's sister), the two accountants Michela Di Nuzzo
and her mother Viola Ianniello, as well as Di Nuzzo's husband
Giovanni Merola.
Thursday evening's ruling on Siciliano is seen as a blow to
the probe by the Naples anti-mafia directorate.
The investigation had led to eight arrests on Jan. 22 but the
courts had annulled alll of the detention orders only a few days
later.
Investigators say that over the years Capaldo, believed to be
the boss of the Zagaria clan, had entered into a business
partnership with Siciliano, who runs dozens of supermarkets, and
in so doing set up several companies under fake names of
foodstuffs provided to the supermarkets, which were actually
controlled by Capaldo's brothers.
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