BARI - The Strisciuglio clan, who had controlled much of the territory around Bari, was brought to its knees on Monday morning after a huge Carabinieri and Police raid saw 99 mafiosi arrested (96 put in jail and three under house arrest) and 147 brought under investigation.

  Those arrested, including bosses and affiliates of the clan, are accused of crimes of mafia association, drug offences, extortion, weapons possession, bodily harm and fighting.

  The investigation, named ‘Vortice Maestrale’ (Mistral Vortex), was coordinated by the prosecutors Lidia Giorgio and Marco D’Agostino, in collaboration with the National Antimafia Directive. 

  The 147 under investigation are facing 40 charges, including the extortion of a jewellers, a bookmakers, a bar, a garage and prostitution ring, often charging up to 20,000 euros for their protection.

  The magistrates were able to reconstruct a hierarchy, and their illicit activity from 2015 to today, in the Bari neighbourhoods of Libertà, San Paolo, San Pio-Enziteto, Santo Spirito and San Girolamo, documenting their affiliation rites, extortions, conflicts with other clans,  and threats and punishments to the disloyal and unreliable.

  Vito Valentino and Lorenzo Caldarola were the names given by the investigation as the bosses of the organisation, with the other high up arrests including Alessandro Ruta, Saverio Faccilongo, Giacomo Campanale and Caldarola’s sons Francesco and Ivan.

  “The neighbourhoods where the Strisciuglio clan is active are still today characterised by a suffocating control over the territory, that manifests itself in the numerous counts of extortion of small businesses,” reads the remand order signed by the Court of Bari.

  The inquest also includes the statements of 21 ‘collaborators with justice.’

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