(ANSA) - CATANIA, MAY 23 - Wife and two children of an exponent of the Santapaola-Ercolano clan who is serving a life sentence for murder were arrested by the Catania police for extortion aggravated by the mafia method.
A precautionary custody order was carried out against them in prison issued by the investigating judge at the request of the Dda Etna.
At the center of the investigation is the alleged 'extortion' to an entrepreneur in the quarrying and processing of lava stone who would have paid the 'pizzo' from 2012, paying a total of 1.7 million euros in cash, checks, bills and means of work.
According to the prosecution, to give orders to his family from prison was Giovanni Rapisarda, 64, a life sentence, detained for the murder of a well-known businessman from Catania committed in 1993, and the recipient of the same safety order issued for his wife and two children who, he hypothesizes laDda of Catania, were the executors of his orders.
Santa Carmela Corso, 61, and Giuseppe Rapisarda, 34, were taken to prison in flagrant arrest by the carabinieri after they had withdrawn a 'bribe' of 2,000 euros from the victim of the extortion, and Valerio Rapisarda, 30 years old.
The investigations had been started after soldiers of the Armadian company of Paternò had noticed several and frequent visits of the two Rapisarda brothers in the headquarters of a company in Belper where hidden cameras were installed.
"The victim - reconstructs the Public Prosecutor of Catania - after the acquisition of a branch of the company already owned by other members of the Rapisarda family, despite having already delivered € 700,000 in the last 10 years for unlawfully claimed credits of € 1,000,000, received a further extortion request of 700,000 euros, deferred over five years with the payment of a sum between 1,500 and 3,000 euros per week or, alternatively, the sale of the company ".
In one of the last meetings with the victim Giuseppe Rapisarda would have explained to the entrepreneur that he had to pay because the quarry "was our thing" and that it was "twelve-thirteen years and we have to close the game" and reminding him that "my father is his pleasure, because here was his thing. "
(HANDLE).
