10.8 million seized from the "Ciuraru" and the entrepreneur close to the Santapaola clan - Ercolano: the Gdf raid between Catania and Arezzo

State dealt a new, severe blow to the financial heart of organized crime in Catania. The District Attorney's Office of the Republic of Catania, led by prosecutor Francesco Curcio, coordinated an operation that culminated in the seizure of assets worth over 10.8 million euros.

The blitz, carried out by the Financial Police of the Provincial Command of Catania, affected the territories of the provinces of Catania and Arezzo, directly targeting the illicit capital of the “Picanello Group”, a prominent branch of the mafia family “Santapaola-Ercolano”.

The asset prevention measure, ordered by the Catania Court – Prevention Measures Section, concerns two figures known to the judicial chronicles: Carmelo Salemi (born 1969), known as “U Ciuraru” (the florist), and construction entrepreneur Giovanni Fabrizio Papa.

Both had already been arrested in 2024 as part of the large-scale investigation “Operation OLEANDRO”, conducted by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Financial Police, and have been classified by the Court as individuals “dangerous to society”.

According to investigative reconstructions, Salemi was not merely an affiliate, but the top figure of the “Picanello Group”. He is accused of playing a primary role in promoting, organizing, and directing the clan's criminal activities, which would include mafia association, aggravated extortion by mafia methods, and drug trafficking and dealing.

Investigations describe him as a point of reference in resolving internal disputes within the association and managing relations with other criminal groups.

On the logistical and financial front, investigators identify Papa as the entrepreneur “organically subservient” to the group's interests, who allegedly made his construction companies available to Salemi, transforming them into tools for laundering large illicit proceeds.

In this way, dirty money would have been reintroduced into the legal economy, with a particularly significant impact in the construction sector. The documents reveal how Pope was fully familiar with mafia dynamics, extortion methods, and internal hierarchies, providing a concrete causal contribution to the preservation and strengthening of the association and its ability to infiltrate the economic fabric.

The maxi-seizure today originates from asset investigations by the G.I.C.O., which highlighted a marked and unjustified disproportion between the incomes declared by the two suspects – of modest amounts or otherwise incompatible – and the substantial wealth accumulated.

Under seizure are the shares of three companies based in Catania, active in the construction and real estate trading sectors: FABRI IMMOBILIARE S.r.l., BF COSTRUZIONI S.r.l. and VRS IMMOBILIARE S.r.l., all deemed to be effectively attributable to the two recipients of the measure.

At the same time, seals have been placed on the related business assets, including a significant real estate portfolio: 62 buildings (24 in the province of Catania and 38 in the province of Arezzo) and 16 plots of land (11 in Catania and 5 in Arezzo), in addition to various financial assets, for a total value that exceeds 10.8 million euros.

The intervention is part of the path traced by the complex “Operation OLEANDRO”, which had already involved precautionary measures for 15 people out of a total of 26 suspects, for crimes ranging from usury to extortion, to drug trafficking and money laundering, and a previous seizure of assets worth over 12 million euros.

As highlighted in the measure signed by prosecutor Curcio, the goal is to strike at the “entrepreneurial mafia”. The attack on illicit assets constitutes an essential step not only to dismantle the economic capacity of criminal organizations but especially to prevent “the increasingly dangerous attempts to contaminate the entrepreneurial fabric and to participate in the capital of healthy businesses”.

The clarification from lawyer Antonio Fiumefreddo:

With reference to the news released in a statement by the Guardia di Finanza, and in the interest of Papa Fabrizio Giovanni, it is worth clarifying that to the accusations made against him, in the context of the investigation named "Oleandro", he has directly provided the Public Prosecutors with extensive documented and verified evidence of his innocence, so much so that the Preliminary Investigating Judge ordered his release following a favorable opinion from the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Subsequently, the same Public Prosecutor in charge of the investigations ordered, at the request of the defense, specific verification activities, and also through thorough defensive investigations, it became evident that Papa is completely unrelated to any criminal context.
In the trial, which is taking place in the Fourth Section of the Court, it has clearly emerged that Papa is a businessman in the construction sector who has always operated using lawful resources, drawn from his savings and bank credit.
Some of the cooperating witnesses heard in the trial have also confirmed that Papa is a worker and that he had no financial interests with any member of Cosa Nostra.
Now, almost at the conclusion of the trial that will judge the merits, the notification of the asset prevention measure has been issued, which will begin to be discussed before the Court on March 25th.
It should be noted that the proposed prevention measure is somehow part of a consolidated process that the Public Prosecutor's Office instructs concurrently with the investigations into personal responsibility, while from the reading of the documents it emerges that there is nothing new or different compared to what has already been widely denied.
It is also worth emphasizing that, even during the ongoing seizure of the company shares, which has now lasted for two years, the judicial administration has smoothly proceeded to ensure the sale of the properties with full guarantees for the buyers.
It is therefore hoped that even before the Prevention Measures Section of the Court of Catania, Mr. Papa will be able to prove his innocence and obtain the return of what belongs to him, as it is the result of decades of hard work and personal and family sacrifices.