The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta between Naples and Salerno. Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederation of clans in the Caserta area. The Casalesi clan is believed to be one of the most powerful groups within the Camorra, specialising in construction and keeping a lower profile than clans that focus on drug dealing.^[1]

History[link]

In the 1980s, Bardellino realized that cocaine, not heroin, would become the more profitable drug and organized a trafficking operation smuggling it from Latin America to Aversa via a fish flour import-export business. Heroin was smuggled as well, and shipments to the Gambino crime family were concealed inside espresso filters. When one shipment was intercepted by the authorities, Bardellino reportedly called John Gotti and told him; "Don't worry, now we're sending twice as much the other way".^[2]

During the Camorra war of the 1980s, the Casalesi sided with Nuova Famiglia against Raffaele Cutolo. In one incident, Casalesi members positioned a machine gun on a hill in Ponte Annicchino and opened fire, killing four Cutolo members. After the Casalesi achieved dominance in their area following the defeat of Cutolo, Antonio Bardellino settled in Santo Domingo with his family. But unrest grew within the Casalesi.

Heading up the clan's military operations were Francesco Schiavone and Francesco Bidognetti, and they thought Bardellino's right hand man Mario Iovine was too close to Bardellino but did not approve of their plans for autonomy. They convinced Bardellino to order the murder of Iovine's brother, and then told Iovine that Bardellino had his brother killed based purely on a rumour. Iovine murdered Bardellino in retaliation in his Brazilian villa in 1988, meeting him under the pretext of discussing their cocaine operation. A number of men loyal to Bardellino were subsequently murdered.^[2]

Francesco Schiavone took over as leader. In the early 1990s another war broke out between Schiavone's men and those loyal to another boss, Vincenzo de Falco, who was shot dead in 1991. During this war Mario Iovine was also killed, sprayed by bullets by de Falco's men while in a telephone booth in Portugal. The war lasted four years.^[2] In March 2004, Francesco Schiavone's cousin, Francesco Cicciariello Schiavone, was arrested in Poland and charged with 10 homicides, three kidnappings, nine attempted homicides and extortion.^[3]

Spartacus trial[link]

Following his arrest, all the police investigations into the clan were grouped together in the Spartacus Trial. Over 1,300 people were investigated and 500 witness took the stand.^[4] The trial against 36 members of the Casalesi clan finally concluded on June 19, 2008, after 10-years. Over the course of the trial five people involved in the case were murdered, including an interpreter. A judge and two journalists received death threats.^[5]

All defendants were found guilty and 16 will never be released. Francesco Schiavone, his lieutenant, Francesco Bidognetti, Antonio Iovine and Michele Zagaria were given life sentences.^[5][6]

Current status[link]

The clan was jointly ruled by Michele Zagaria and Antonio Iovine, until the latter's capture and arrest on November 17, 2010.^[7] The clan was then led solely by Zagaria, until he too was captured on December 7, 2011. He was found in a bunker near his home province.^[8] The Casalesi clan is heavily involved in the cement and milk industries as well as the international drug trade, supplying drugs to the Mafia in Palermo and having alliances with Albanian mobsters and Nigerian crime syndicates. Their total assets are estimated to be worth around 30 billion euros.^[2]

On September 18, 2008 six African immigrants were shot dead on Castel Volturno in what is believed to be a dispute between the Casalesi and immigrant drug gangs. A riot followed the next day, and the Italian government has deployed 500 troops in the area to deal with the outbreak of Camorra violence.^[9][10]

References[link]

• Saviano, Roberto, Gomorrah, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0-374-16527-0

Michele Zagaria (San Cipriano d'Aversa, born May 21, 1958) is an Italian Camorrista and one of the bosses of the Casalesi clan from Casal di Principe in the province of Caserta northwest of Naples. He was nicknamed Capastorta, which translates to wrong-head, because of his violent reputation.^[1]

He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior from 1995 until 2011, for Camorra association, murder, extortion, robbery and other crimes. On February 8, 2000, an international warrant was issued against him, to be arrested for extradition.^[2]

Criminal career[link]

The criminal career of Michele Zagaria, began in the 1980s, alongside Francesco Schiavone. His first arrest dates back to 1988, when he was found with a 7.65 submachine gun—the weapon of choice of soldiers of the Camorra—in his car. Since then he was in and out of jail, until, on December 6, 1995, the so-called Spartacus investigation—the mother of all anti-Camorra operations—identified him as one of the heads of the Casalesi clan. Since then he vanished from public life.^[3]

Zagaria is an atypical Casalesi boss. According to informants, he doesn't refuse a few lines of cocaine, a strict taboo within the clan. He insists on being treated like a priest: 'You should do what I say and not what I do.' He knows how to construct his image. Employees are allegedly received in extravagant villas and greeted with a tiger on a leash. Together with his brother Pasquale he has become the "king of tendering" in construction, getting public contracts for the high-speed train Tav, a new prison, the local rail line and a NATO radar base.^[4][5]

With Antonio Iovine, Zagaria represented the new face of management of the Camorra, forging strategic alliances with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.^[3] According to Roberto Saviano, the writer of Gomorrah about the Camorra, it was Zagaria’s "business acumen" that had "enabled his companies to triumph throughout Italy". When it came to winning tenders by undercutting other companies, "Michele Zagaria and his construction firms know no rival".^[6]

Convictions and arrest[link]

He was sentenced, in absentia, to life on January 15, 2010, after 12-year trial—named the Spartacus Trial—against 36 members of the Casalesi clan, charged with a string of murders and other crimes.^[7][8]

Zagaria was arrested on December 7, 2011, when police raided a secret bunker in Casapesenna. "You won. Your state has won," Zagaria told police officers as he was arrested. He had been on the run for 16 years, living in his cramped quarters for years, emerging rarely. The arrest led to scenes of jubilation among the police officers. Some embraced; others gave the V for Victory sign and punched the air amid cries of "Long live the police. Long live legality."^[6][9][10]

References[link]