Vincenzo Di Lauro , son of the clan leader Paolo Di Lauro, the neo-melodic singer Tony Colombo and his wife Tina Rispoli , widow of the boss Gaetano Marino, are among the 27 people arrested at dawn by the ROS and the Naples carabinieri as part of an investigation by the DDA (substitute prosecutors Giugliano and De Marco) into the entrepreneurial and financial activities of the Secondigliano clan.
The police also seized assets worth 8 million euros . The crimes also include external participation in a mafia association , auction rigging , and the aggravating circumstance of transnationality linked to cigarette smuggling.
According to what emerged from the investigations of the ROS, the Carabinieri of the provincial command of Naples and the DDA - who at dawn arrested 27 people believed to be linked to the Di Lauro Secondigliano clan - the entrepreneurial aspiration has transformed the criminal organisation.
The Di Lauro clan also invested in clothing companies and created brands , together with the Palermo neo-melodic singer Tony Colombo and his wife Tina Rispoli, such as the one called "Corleone".
Even the "9 mm" energy drink (whose name recalls the caliber of guns), like the clothing brand winking at the world of organized crime, would be attributable to the clan founded by Paolo Di Lauro, known as "ciruzzo o' millionaire".
In essence, according to the investigators, a sort of "Di Lauro spa" was set up, which resulted in investments in activities considered less risky through companies registered in the name of nominees, now subject to seizure, with which the clan managed, for example, a well-known gym, a betting shop and some supermarkets.
Smuggling cigarettes from the East, particularly Bulgaria and Ukraine, was also part of the Di Lauros' "core business", with the importation of around one and a half tons of "blondes" supplying the illegal markets .
Furthermore, with an investment of half a million euros, according to investigators, made possible by the leaders of the Di Lauro clan, by the neo-melodic singer Tony Colombo and his wife Tina Rispoli, a cigarette factory (already seized) was set up to manufacture packs of cigarettes with foreign tobacco to be sold in Italy and abroad.
The investigations by the Carabinieri of the ROS, the provincial command of Naples and the DDA, were concentrated in particular in the period of time between 2017 and 2021: illicit activities emerged such as drug dealing, extortion, threats to the family members of a repentant man and also to the entrepreneurs who participated in the judicial auctions to force them to desist.
Furthermore, also thanks to the support of the Licciardi and Vinella Grassi clans, the extortion requests to entrepreneurs linked to the Di Lauro family were revoked.
(Unioneonline/vl)
