The Carabinieri have arrested 56 people in Naples who have been accused of fraudulently receiving invalidity pensions for many years. Some of the fake invalids have been arrested while they were driving cars, although they were receiving a pension for suffering from blindness. One of the “blind” was also observed by the police while he was reading a newspaper in a cue at the post office, while another was counting money received from a customer at her lingerie stand at the market.

The investigation that led to the arrest of the fake invalids started in 2007, when city officials noted that some documentation supporting the requests for invalidity pensions appeared to be false. The Carabinieri have ascertained that the false documentation was produced mainly in the Pallonetto area in the S. Ferdinando neighborhood, where an unusual concentration of invalids had requested a pension over the past three years. The false documents included both medical and administrative papers.

According to “Il Mattino”, the social security system has paid over a million euro (approximately 1.5 million dollars) to fake invalids in Naples over the past three years. Some of the fraudulent invalids had the photographs on their identity cards touched up to widen the pupil of the eyes, in an attempt to “appear” blind. While the public prosecutor has accused the fake invalids of fraud, the investigators are conducting an inquiry to ascertain whether there has been collusion on the part of corrupt civil servants in granting the pensions to the false invalids.

“La Repubblica” reports that a young local politician might be behind the false invalidity pensions in the Pallonetto area. According to some residents, the young politician promised jobs and false invalidity pensions in exchange for votes. The Pallonetto, which is immediately behind the waterfront area hosting the major hotels on the waterfront, was known as a major center for cigarette contraband. With the recent dissolution of the contraband market, the Pallonetto has lost one of its major sources of revenue, and both the official and unofficial unemployment statistics have risen.

A Chamber of Deputies commission, responsible for examining requests by the judiciary to arrest a representative, voted on 25 November 2009 against authorizing the detention of Nicola Cosentino, with 11 votes against the arrest, six in favor, and who abstained. The final decision regarding Cosentino will be made, however, on 10 December 2009, when the House will be called, during a full session, to vote on the request made by the Office of the Public Prosecutor to arrest him for external participation in the activities of the Camorra, the Neapolitan organized crime. On the same day, the Senate voted against two motions put forward by the opposition requesting that Cosentino, be removed from his position as undersecretary of the ministry of the economy in the Berlusconi government. Both motions were rejected by the ample majority supporting the Berlusconi government in the Senate.

While the Cosentino case continues through the parliamentary process, Gioandomenico Lepore, the Naples public prosecutor, confirmed that the case inquiry against Cosentino will continue. Lepore stated that the judiciary and Parliament have different roles, and that “we have understood this issue in one way, while they have understood it in another. This does not impede us from continuing ascertaining the facts. If we find elements supporting our case, then we will continue; if not, we will stop. In the meantime, the investigation continues”.

Cosentino, who is the regional coordinator for Berlusconi’s Popolo della Libertà (PdL) party, is continuing his campaign to become the next president of the Campania Region in the elections that will take place next March. In an interview published on the Naples edition of La Repubblica on 6 December 2009, Cosentino stated that he will never give up and will not allow the opposition to win. He stated that “I am, we are in the electoral campaign. The voters have understood that in this Region we are the only valid alternative to the last fifteen years of bad government,” referring in particular to the administration of Antonio Bassolino, who has been the “governor” of the Campania Region since 2000. Cosentino is convinced that the accusations against him are politically driven. He notes that if the magistrates have been investigating him since 1990, for external relationships with the organized crime family Casalesi, he wonders why they have come out only now with formal accusations. According to Cosentino, “the only reason behind the request to arrest me is to stop me from participating in the campaign” for president of the Region.

Garbage in Pozzuoli, January 2008. Photo by Anthony M. Quattrone.

The connection between Neapolitan organized crime, known as “camorra” and politicians in Naples and other cities in the Campania Region has been at the center of the political debate over the past years.  The debate has become more passionate following the request made by a public prosecutor to arrest politician Nicola Cosentino.  Earlier this week, the Office of the Public Prosecutor sent to the Chamber of Deputies a request to arrest Cosentino, who is an undersecretary of the ministry of the economy of the Berlusconi government and a Member of Parliament.  Cosentino cannot be arrested without the consent of the Chamber of Deputies.  He is accused of providing outside support to the illegal activities of the camorra in relation to the collection, transportation, and disposal of garbage in the Campania Region.  The camorra-politicians-garbage disposal paradigm has come to the attention of magistrates over the course of the past fifteen years, but no major politician has ever been arrested.

The garbage disposal crisis and its link to organized crime has been officially recognized by the Italian state for the past fifteen years.  On 11 February 1994, the Italian government, headed by Arzeglio Ciampi, declared a state of emergency in Naples and nominated a commissioner with special powers to deal with the disposal of garbage.  Since then, eleven commissioners have been nominated by different national and regional governments, which, in the meantime, have alternated between center left and center right majorities.  The head of the civil protection, two prefects, and two presidents of the Campania region, one from the center right, Antonio Rastrelli, and one from the center left, Antonio Bassolino, took turns as commissioners.  In the end, by the spring of 2008, the Naples garbage crisis hit the international media, placing Naples on the front pages of virtually every major newspaper in the world.  The images of Naples covered with tons of garbage eventually led to millions of euro in missed income, especially in the tourism industry.

The camorra was able to become central in the garbage disposal system by controlling the dumping grounds, and by infiltrating the garbage collection and hauling system.  The role of the commissioner was intended to oppose the power of the camorra in the collection, transportation, and disposal of garbage.  The commissioner was given special powers by the central government in Rome, to include the authorization to award contracts, without competition, to face an emergency.

The camorra had infiltrated the garbage disposal system by digging and managing illegal dumps.  As older dumps used by the city filled up, the camorra was able to direct the dumping towards its own grounds, allegedly controlling also the companies contracted to transport the collected garbage to the dumps.  Organized crime had the will and the power to create dumps virtually in any location of the Region where power shovels and other mechanical gear could operate.

Several prosecutors in Naples have been investigating the link between construction companies allegedly belonging to organized crime and local politicians.  The magistrates are focusing their attention on those contracts that allegedly have been awarded to companies controlled by organized crime.  These camorra-run companies have been able to underbid competitors because they are able to contain costs by using illegal dumping grounds.  Organized crime is also accused of managing the illegal transportation and disposal of toxic and dangerous waste produced in northern Italy and illegally dumped in Campania.  According to a local regional environmental agency, there are dozens of illegal dumps in Campania, and many contain toxic waste, which is polluting water springs, agricultural lands, and pastures.  Studies are underway to determine the effects of the toxic waste on the health of the population living in the proximity of the illegal dumps.

Office of the Public Prosecutor of Naples

Anthony M. Quattrone

Roberto Saviano, author of the best seller Gomorrah, rejects the offer to become the next president of the Campania Region. Saviano, in an interview on 11 November 2009 with Linea Notte, an Italian nightly new program on state television, RAI 3, stated that “it is not the first time that I receive such an offer, but to be an author, I need to be impartial. I really cannot tie myself to any grouping”. He made the statement in the context of a television program dealing with the request put forward to Parliament, by a prosecutor in Naples, to arrest Nicola Cosentino, the regional coordinator for the center-right Popolo della Libertà (PdL) party. In Italy, Members of Parliament have limited immunity, and they can be arrested only with the consent of chamber to which they belong

Coming out a meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on 12 November 2009, Cosentino confirmed his intention to become a candidate for the office of president of the Campania Region, for the elections that will take place next March, in spite of allegations of collusion with organized crime and the request for his arrest. Cosentino is a member of parliament and an undersecretary for the economy in the Italian government.

At the end of the meeting with the Prime Minister, Cosentino informed the press that he had obtained Berlusconi’s solidarity, and that he had duly informed the Prime Minister that he had no intention of withdrawing from the race for the regional presidency because “it should not be the prosecutors who decide how democratic processes should take place.” According to Cosentino, “there is a wide consensus regarding my candidacy, and I have no intention of giving up, and the Prime Minister has not asked me to bow out”. Thirty senators who belong to the PdL have asked the Minister of Justice to audit the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Naples, to investigate the “climate of conflict” reigning in the office. According to members of the center left parties, Berlusconi’s party is trying to intimidate the magistrates and prosecutors.

Cosentino’s decision to not withdraw his candidacy is causing ferment inside the PdL party. The Member of Parliament, Fabio Granata, vice president of the Antimafia Commission and member of the PdL, is of the opinion that Cosentino should withdraw his candidacy. Granata believes that in accordance with the current turn of events, Cosentino’s candidature is completely inopportune

Granata’s view is supported by the President of the Italian Parliament, Gianfranco Fini, who is a cofounder of the PdL party. Fini stated, during an evening news program on 11 November 2009, that he could “guarantee that Berlusconi is convinced that it is not opportune to put forward the candidacy of the honorable Cosentino. I can reconfirm that Cosentino will not be a candidate.”

It is not clear which of Berlusconi’s alleged statements is the correct one: is it Cosentino’s understanding that Berlusconi is behind him, or is it Fini’s understanding that Berlusconi is against Cosentino’s candidacy?

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with undersecretary Nicola Cosentino

Anthony M. Quattrone

Carlo Alemi, the president of the Court of Naples, stated, in an interview published in the Naples edition of the national paper La Repubblica on 9 November 2009, that he would prefer that political parties do not put forward as candidates for public offices anyone who was officially under investigation or suspected of having committed a crime.  Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and co-founder with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of the center-right party, Popolo della Libertà (PdL), stated in an interview with journalist Fabio Fazio, broadcast on 8 November 2009 on Italian national television, that politics will take a big step forward when candidates who have many votes based on “non transparent powers” are excluded from the electoral process.

Approximately 24 hours after the statements made by judge Alemi and president Fini, a prosecutor in Naples, Raffaele Piccirillo, issued an arrest warrant against under secretary for the economy, Nicola Cosentino. The warrant has been sent to the office of president Fini because Cosentino is currently a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and, as such, cannot be arrested without the specific authorization by Parliament.  It is not know if the warrant calls for custody in jail, home arrest, or another restrictive measure of a geographical type (limiting his ability to travel outside of a specific geographic area).  The warrant should be arriving at Fini’s desk on Tuesday, 10 November 2009.

Cosentino, who is the regional coordinator of the PdL party in Campania, is accused of assisting a Neapolitan mafia clan, the Casalesi, as an external associate, through his political offices.

The Corriere della Sera on line reports, on 9 November 2009, that Cosentino has been accused by a police informant of having common interests with the Casalesi with respect to the construction of an incinerator in the town of Santa Maria la Fossa, in the province of Caserta, about 40 kilometers north of Naples.  According to the Corriere, Cosentino has always denied any wrongdoing, explaining that he was always against the construction of the incinerator.

The news of the arrest warrant against Cosentino coincides with the escalation of an internal feud in the PdL between Berlusconi and Fini loyalists over political strategies and the relationship with Umberto Bossi’s Northern League.  Berlusconi’s Forza Italia moderate conservative party and Fini’s Alleanza Nazionale conservative party became a federation in February 2008, and finally merged into the PdL party in March 2009.  Fini loyalists have expressed concern over claims made by Bossi, and apparently supported by Berlusconi, that the Northern League should nominate candidates for the center right coalition for the president of the Piedmont and Veneto regions in the upcoming elections in 2010.

During the latest elections in Campania in 2008, for the renewal of Parliament, the coalition led by the PdL obtained over 51 percent of the vote.  The current president of the Campania Region is Antonio Bassolino, a former communist and founder of the Italian Democratic Party. According to the latest polls, Bassolino’s favorability ratings are below 20 percent.  Polls performed prior to the latest news regarding Cosentino’s possible arrest gave the center left coalition at over 50 percent in Campania.

Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah

The leader of the Italia dei Valori (IDV) party (Italy of Values party), Antonio Di Pietro, stated on Friday, 6 November 2009, that he will support Roberto Saviano for president of the Campania region during the elections that will take place next March.  Saviano has gained worldwide fame by authoring a well documented book, Gomorrah, detailing the relationship between politics, industry and the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia.  Di Pietro is a former magistrate who, in the  early 1990s was active in prosecuting major Italian politicians involved in corruption and bribery cases.  Di Pietro was part of a wider team of magistrates based in Milan who were known by the press as the “clean hands” pool.  The work done by Di Pietro and the other magistrates of the pool eventually led to the dissolution of both the Italian Socialist and Christian Democratic Parties in the mid 90s.

The elections for the presidency of the Campania region will represent a major test for both the governing center right coalition led by media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, which includes the Popolo della Libertà (People of Liberty) and the Northern League, and for the two major parties on the center left, the Democratic Party and Di Pietro’s IDV, which are facing significant difficulties in forming a coalition.  The Union of Democrats of the Center led by Pier Ferdinando Casini, formed by remnants of the disbanded Christian Democrats, and a group of smaller leftist parties have not yet announced if they will run on their own, or if they will support a candidate from one of the two major coalitions.

The current president of the Campania Region, Antonio Bassolino, who is a member of the center left Democratic Party, is under heavy criticism for inefficiencies related to the management of the garbage crisis that hit Naples and other areas in the  Campania region in 2007 and 2008.  He is also criticized for having developed a vast spoils system awarding consultancy  and outsourcing contracts to loyal followers.

The center right formation appears to be interested in putting forward as a candidate Nicola Consentino, the current regional president of the Popolo della Libertà party, who has been accused by five police informants of having major ties with the Casalesi organized crime group.

Di Pietro’s proposal to candidate Saviano for the position of president of the Region aims at forcing  center left and center right formations to search for nominees who are competent and have excellent ethical reputations.

The Campania region is home to approximately 6 million residents.  It is one of the most populous regions in Italy.  Naples is the capital of the region.  Four other major cities are located in Campania: Avellino, Benevento, Caserta, and Salerno.