Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
CESARÒ (ME) / NEWS – The mafia of the pastures continues to exert its suffocating grip at the heart of Sicily, aiming for systematic control of EU agricultural and livestock funds. At dawn today, a major anti-mafia operation shook the Nebrodi area, extending across the provinces of Messina, Catania, Enna and Ragusa.
The Carabinieri of Santo Stefano di Camastra, executing a preliminary investigations judge’s custody order requested by the Catania District Anti-Mafia Directorate, made seven arrests. The charges, which vary by individual, range from mafia-type criminal association and extortion aggravated by mafia methods to illegal intermediation and labour exploitation.
The Caputo-Pruiti clan pyramid and the shadow of the Santapaola family
The investigation conducted by the Carabinieri and coordinated by the DDA magistrates has, for the first time, precisely reconstructed the hierarchy and operations of the mafia cell in the municipalities of Cesarò and San Teodoro.
The dismantled criminal group answers to the “Caputo-Pruiti” clan, a local branch directly affiliated with the Santapaola-Ercolano family of Cosa Nostra in Catania. The organisation’s core business was the illegal seizure of subsidies distributed by AGEA (the Agency for Agricultural Payments).
Pressure on farmers, livestock theft and front men
To secure exclusive management of state-owned land for grazing—and thus collect EU funds—the clan deployed a veritable strategy of terror. Local farmers and livestock breeders were systematically threatened with physical retaliation, property damage and livestock theft to force them to give up public concessions.
Investigators recorded about 30 extortion victims: breeders were forced to pay regular kickbacks of between €500 and €1,000 or to entrust maintenance work on their land to firms linked to the mafia organisation. In addition, to evade anti-mafia bans and asset prevention measures, the clan had set up a dense network of fictitious company registrations in the agricultural sector under trusted front men.
