In Sardinia "there is no evidence of the presence of indigenous mafia-type associations, however, in the counter-activities carried out in
over the years, projections of traditional mafias that have made real estate investments proceeds from illicit activities have been found". This is how the chapter of the report of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate, relating to 2024, published today, begins, from which it emerges that drugs remain the main element of crime and attention remains high on attacks on armored vehicles and intimidation of local administrators.
The PNRR contracts
A picture in line with the previous ones: the only change concerns the checks carried out by the Sardinian Prefectures on the registrations in the National Anti-Mafia Database by companies intending to participate in public tenders. In Sardinia in 2023 there were 19,210, last year they rose to 21,119, equal to a plus 9.94%. This data becomes even more evident if seen on the front of tenders linked to the Pnrr: 406 companies in 2023 and 683 in 2024, +68.23%, the highest percentage of growth in central Italy . The data demonstrates a proactivity of the Prefectures but no irregularities found. According to the DIA report, "the main illicit activity is confirmed to be that linked to the narcotics sector, with particular regard to the cultivation, with sophisticated techniques, of vast cannabis plantations and it cannot be excluded that part of the production could also be destined outside the region". Furthermore, "contacts between criminal individuals from the island and traditional mafia organisations in southern Italy in the drug trafficking sector, aimed at introducing cocaine into the island's territory" have emerged.
Assaults on armored vehicles
Another phenomenon "that has caused social alarm", the report states, "is that of the assaults on armored vehicles, as they are often committed in particularly cruel ways and sometimes even with weapons of war. Finally, in the reference period, some intimidating episodes against local entrepreneurs and public administrators were recorded". The investigations still underway will have to establish whether there are connections between the gang dismantled after the robbery in Tuscany and the criminal operations conducted at the Mondialpol in Sassari and in Siligo.
The report lists the various intimidations and salient criminal episodes that occurred in 2024: from the seizure of 30 kilos of cocaine by the police on 11 April, to the assault on the Siligo armored van on 31 January , up to the murder in Arzana on 9 July, resolved today with the arrest of the fugitive from Ogliastra Sandro Arzu.
The Camorrista arrested
Furthermore, on 30 July 2004, a top member of the Camorra Fontanella clan from Sant'Antonio Abate was arrested in Sardinia. Considered responsible for various murders, he later became a collaborator of justice, and was released at the end of 2023 "after serving a long period of imprisonment. However, on 30 July 2024, the man was arrested again by the Carabinieri together with an accomplice in execution of a precautionary custody order on charges of attempted extortion aggravated by mafia methods". The suspect, "arrested in Sardinia where he had moved his domicile, according to the investigations, on 2 July 2024 made an extortionate request of 1 million euros to a well-known entrepreneur from Sant'Antonio Abate".
(Online Union)