Overview of “The Foggia Society”

• In Event: Mind of the Mafia

Abstract

The annual report of the DIA (Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate) presented to Parliament, relating to 2021, outlined the activities of the criminal organizations of Puglia, a region that aknowledged great economic and tourist development in recent years. And so are the criminal organizations. The report shows that, in addition to the usual activities relating to the drug market, the Apulian criminal organizations are also engaged in other activities. In particular, the infiltration of illicit capital within the economic-entrepreneurial activities of the territory and the corruption of sectors of the Public Administration, as well as the judiciary. Criminal activities in the Foggia area arouse particular alarm in Puglia. Here the criminal organizations, which are headed by historical families, allied with Campanian, Albanian and Montenegrin clans, are characterized by their ferocity and the heterogeneity of the groups, in changing relationships of conflict and alliance with each other. The main clans in the Foggia area are those of the Gargano, specialized in arms trafficking, that of Foggia, the so-called "Society", specialized in extortion, that of Cerignola, specialized in assaults on armored vans and car theft, that of San Severo, dedicated to drug trafficking through agreements with other national and foreign criminal organizations. The DIA investigations led to the dissolution of the council of the municipality of Foggia, with the resignation of the mayor, in 2021 due to mafia infiltration in the administration. The Foggia “Society” had also massively infiltrated the agricultural sectors, particularly flourishing in the area, and the construction of public procurement.

Authors

• Fulvio Carabellese, University of Bari

• Lia Parente, University of Bari