Sacra Corona Unita tried for the second time to blow up a key trial witness

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Italy’s interior ministry has announced that it will strengthen its anti-mafia task force in the city of Foggia after the increasingly powerful local mob tried for the second time to blow up a key trial witness.

Minister Luciana Lamorgese’s office said she was sending extra police forces to the southern province in the Puglia region, the heartland of the Sacra Corona Unita (SCU), and opening a special office of organised crime investigators.

Q&A What is the Sacra Corona Unita Show Hide Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita (United Holy Crown, SCU) is one of Italy's four main Italian mafia factions, after the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Camorra of Campania and Calabria's powerful 'Ndrangheta. According to experts, the group was founded by Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo in 1981 in order to expand his criminal activities into Puglia. Initially known as the New Great Puglian Camorra, the group kept a much lower profile than the country's other organised-crime groups, but it gained notoriety in 2014 after SCU gunmen killed a rival, his wife and two-year old son. The group currently consists of about 50 clans with approximately 2,000 members. Although it has attracted less coverage than other mafia factions, the SCU is growing steadily more powerful, according to a recent report by the Italian police's Anti-Mafia Investigation Department (DIA). The report describes the Sacra Corona Unita as being "in excellent health" and ‘’ready to get its hands on the most profitable sectors of the economy’’ as well as continue to manage drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, especially in the Brindisi area.





Thursday’s attack targeted a home for the elderly run by a cooperative managed in part by Christian Vigilante, a witness in a major trial against alleged mobsters, according to local police reports. No one was injured.

“The state, and citizens of Foggia, will not be cowed,” Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte said on Twitter.

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“Investigators are already at work, and we will not give respite to those who think they can use violence to banish legality, freedom and justice. We will win this battle together,” he wrote.

The explosion followed a bomb attack two weeks ago that destroyed Vigilante’s car and damaged six others. The first attempt on Vigilante’s life prompted 20,000 people to march through Foggia in a protest organised by the anti-mafia group Libera.

“We will not back down in the face of yet another bombing, but will move forward even more forcefully,” it said on Thursday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Minister Luciana Lamorgese said she was ‘utterly determined’ to wrench back control of the territory from the mob. Photograph: Salvatore Esposito/Barcroft Media

The bombings came on the heels of the year’s first murder, when a 50-year old shot in his car by gunmen on a scooter.

Lamorgese said she was “utterly determined” to wrench back control of the territory from the mob, and said she was counting on “the mobilisation of all civil society … to respond to criminal attacks without fear”.

The Foggia crime syndicate is a branch of the SCU that was established in the 1980s. It remained under the radar for several years, quietly extending its reach until around 80% of local businesses were paying protection money, according to Italian anti-mafia author Roberto Saviano.

The SCU is commonly known as Italy’s “fourth mafia”, after the historic Cosa Nostra in Sicily, and the immensely powerful ’Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Camorra in Naples. Formed in the 1970s, it initially specialised in gunrunning and drug trafficking, investigators say, and had links with several international crime organisations.