The investigating judge of the Court of Bari Antonella Cafagna sentenced 121 defendants to sentences of between 30 years and one year and six months in prison and acquitted another 14 at the end of the trial of alleged leaders and affiliates of the Strisciuglio di Bari mafia clan. the defendants are accused of mafia association, trafficking and possession of drugs and weapons, extortion of traders, injuries and a brawl in the Bari prison dating back to January 2016 which involved 41 prisoners with razor blades and cutters, in which some prison officers were also injured. At the end of the indictment, in the bunker room of the Court of Bitonto, the prosecutors Iolanda Daniela Chimienti and Marco D’Agostino had asked for the conviction of the 135 defendants who had chosen the abbreviated procedure (15 others were indicted) invoking penalties including between 20 years and 22 months in prison. The highest sentence, 30 years, was inflicted on Giuseppe Misceo known as ‘Peppino the ghost’. Among others, the bosses Vito Valentino, Lorenzo Caldarola, Alessandro Ruta, Saverio Faccilongo, Vito Catacchio and Giacomo Campanale were sentenced to 20 years in prison. The investigation by the police and carabinieri, called “Vortice maestrale”, has reconstructed – also thanks to the declarations of 21 collaborators of justice – the hierarchy and illegal activities of the clan, since 2015, for the control of the territory in the Freedom districts of Bari, the historical stronghold of the mafia group, San Paolo, San Pio-Enziteto, Santo Spirito and San Girolamo and in the municipalities of Palo del Colle and Conversano. Among the disputed episodes are an attempt to intimidate the family of a “repentant” from the province, with 600 grams of TNT left in front of the house door, assaults with baseball bats on disputed women, letters from prison with orders to kill, drugs and cell phones slingshots, drones, or visiting relatives into cells. The defendants were sentenced to compensate the civil parties: the Libera association and the Municipality of Bari.
