The yachts which sank during the storm in Rapallo were disposed of by the Mafia. The top management of the “Carlo Riva” Marina have been arrested – the video with the shocking phone calls

The carabinieri’s operation “Caronte” brought to light the trafficking of “luxury” waste, with 8 arrests including boating professionals and the seizure of over 3.5 million euros

The long arm of the Mafia has been discovered in the disposal of the wrecks of hundreds of yachts which sank in the marina of “Carlo Riva” in Rapallo, the top tourist marina in Italy, during the storm on 29 October 2018. The shocking news was discovered through operation “Caronte” which culminated this morning with the arrest by the carabinieri in Santa Margherita Ligure, together with the commands of Genoa, Naples, Caserta, Avellino and Massa Carrara of nine people. The order was given by the GIP in Genoa, following a request by the local Anti-Mafia commission.

Seven men and two women were arrested, some with a previous criminal record, including entrepreneurs, lawyers and boating professionals, who were considered to be involved, in varying degrees, in the illegal transport, storage, management and disposal of waste regarding the vessels that were destroyed during the momentous storm which hit Rapallo, leading to the sinking of 435 boats and yachts. The top management of the “Carlo Riva” marina were also involved. House arrest was granted to the director of the marina, Marina Scarpino, the chairman for the Board of Directors, Andrea Dall’Asta, and the security manager for the marina, Massimo Burzi.

A determining role in the illegal activities was played by the Neapolitan repeat offender Pasquale Capuano, who with the Mafia method and boasting about his contacts among the Camorra and ‘Ndrangeta, promoted and managed the entire chain with the intent of getting his foot into the entrepreneurial fabric of Liguria in the boating industry.

The investigated individuals are retained to be responsible, in differing degrees, of the crimes of activities aimed at the illegal trafficking of waste, aggravated by conspiracy, private violence aggravated by the use of the Mafia method, manslaughter, slander, illegal competition with violence and threats and illegal brokering of labour. One of the individuals was sent to jail, while another seven were put on house arrest, and the last has been forbidden to live in the City of Rapallo. A summons was also sent to seven people considered, in varying degrees to be accomplices in the crimes listed, including also attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms.

In addition to cautionary measures, the judicial authority has ordered the preventative seizure of a total of over 3.6 million euros belonging to the subjects and companies involved in the investigations. According to the investigators, the individuals had created an elaborate system for the illegal management of waste, completely ignoring the environmental dangers connected to the pollution of the waters of Rapallo and of the two sites involved in the provinces of Massa Carrara, with earnings of over 3 million euros, transporting and managing approximately 670 tonnes of waste that were untraceable.

THE DEATH OF THE CARDIOPATHIC “SCUBA DIVER”

On 11 April 2019, a 72 year old man from Naples, Biagio Carannante, died during a dive in the waters of the marina of Rapallo because of a heart attack. Once law enforcement arrived, “the managers of the marina of Carlo Riva – explains Captain Simone Clemente, commander of the Carabinieri of Santa Margherita Ligure, explains to Liguria Nautica – wrote up a document for an interference risk assessment that was completely false, which had on it a previous date”.

“In the document – notes the commander – they listed the dive as a legal dive when it was, in fact, an illegal collection of waste from the sea floor of the Carlo Riva marina, that Carannante was carrying out for Capuano. In addition, it was discovered that Carannante had no diving certification, but was still forced to dive, even though it was known that he had heart problems.”

The accusations against the top management of the “Carlo Riva” marina are very serious. “They range from aggravated fraud against the yacht owners – says Clemente – to risk of environmental pollution, damages, abusive employment, illegal transportation of waste, manslaughter, impeding verification and document falsification regarding safety in the workplace.” Burzi is also accused of aiding and abetting and, together with Scarpino, slander.

WRECKAGE PASSED OFF AS YACHTS UNDER MAINTENANCE

“Approaching” the Rapallo marina was Roberto Lembo, an engineer from British Shipways, a Neapolitan company, which offered “Carlo Riva” to use the services of businesses tied to Capuano (including British Shipways) to dispose of the sunken wreckage. To save time and money (and therefore without any environmental precautions and no permits), the transport took place by passing off the wreckage as vessels being transported to shipyards to undergo maintenance, rather than disposal. The wreckage, in fact, were then buried in illegal waste sites: in Massa, Carrara and Giuliano (Naples). A Bosnian corporal in Massa Carrara supplied Capuano with labour from North Africa which they employed illegally to work in the waste site.

DEATH THREATS AND AN AMBUSH AGAINST THE COMPETITION

During the tapped phone calls, the director of the Rapallo marina, Scarpino says she has a “big problem with Capuano” The Neapolitan criminal allegedly also shot at a man who entered his ex-wife’s business premises, hoping to get the job of transporting the wreckage, in addition, he threatened to “wet”, meaning, kill, the son of the judge who forbade him to move his forced accommodation from Rapallo to Tuscany.

The work of the Carabinieri, with the contribution in the initial phases of the Genoa Harbour Office, supported by the technical investigation, was coordinated by the DDA of the Courts of the Republic of Genoa, with the additional prosecutor Paolo D’Ovidio and the substitute prosecutor, Andrea Ranalli. The injunction was issued by the GIP, Claudio Siclari from the Court of Genoa.

Giuseppe Orrù