Added up, they make 700,000 a year, an earnings comparable to that of Serie A players and frighteningly close to the figures obtained from crimes such as drug dealing, prostitution and human trafficking. Investigation in Venice: 23 precautionary measures.
Every now and then good news: first pickpockets finally in jail. Twenty women and three men, all homeless. After two years of investigations, for the first time, the constant in and out of prison that had characterized this type of figure, continually caught in the act and arrested only to be released shortly after, has been overcome.
But it doesn’t end here, sit down and prepare for the second news. The average daily collection reached 2,500 euros and sometimes exceeded it. The number is extraordinary: the earnings reach that of 90% of Serie A footballers, indeed, a little more, and so they also fall into the highest paid 10%, more than 700,000 euros a year.
We are not at the levels of earnings for drug dealing, prostitution or trafficking of human beings and children, but we are close. It took two years of investigation, and these restrictive measures issued by investigating judge Lea Acampora, at the request of prosecutor Giorgio Gava, made use of the investigation by the Venetian carabinieri which began in the summer of 2023 and continued until the end of 2024, also on the basis of videos published by private individuals. Do you remember the case of that boy from Milan who was beaten up because he filmed pickpockets? Well, in this Venetian case, not only were those filming not beaten, but some images ended up in the files. Far from racism, if anything an aid to legality.
The picture behind all this is nothing short of chilling, not a thriller but a horror, a horror film in every sense. These pregnant girls were forced to steal by a real criminal group specializing in thefts and crimes committed in crowded places. One of them was punched and kicked in the belly while she was pregnant to force her to steal; knives pointed in the faces of twelve- and thirteen-year-old girls, always pregnant, to force them not to return to the camp or elsewhere (almost all Roma and Sinti) without bringing in their daily turnover of 2,500 euros. As a Venetian newspaper reports: «Violence, threats, beatings, humiliation and slavery. The older girls within the Roma and Sinti clans, who were supposed to act as mothers to the little ones, have turned into their tormentors.” If women have done this to women, or rather, mothers to their daughters, I dare not think what men have done to these women. And it is not out of place to ask who the real father of these children kicked while they were still in the womb is. «The crimes range from theft in concert, to violence and threats, injuries, improper use and falsification of cards, receiving stolen goods and money laundering. A truly specialized criminal group.”
In my broadcast I have often dealt with this phenomenon, both in Milan, in Rome, in Venice and in other cities, and it immediately became clear, even without any of these girls finding the courage to say it, that behind this phenomenon there was a phenomenon of trafficking into slavery of the girls themselves. Many of them were repeatedly impregnated because in this way they were guaranteed a certain immunity which allowed these bastards and these bastards older than them to force them to do what they then did. Pieces of wiretaps were circulating where reference was made to a phantasmagoric boss who was a sort of mafia boss in all respects because he used violence, terror and criminal organisation. Congratulations to the Court of Venice who believed that this phenomenon was not a prank, but that behind it there was what was immediately evident to us: a violent and criminal organization. Furthermore, I cannot imagine the abuse suffered by these girls aged 13 or 14, at a time when, at the end of adolescence, that psychological and character structure should be created which represents the foundation of an entire life. Who can repay the destruction of a personality that transforms from “someone” into “something” according to the laws of organized crime, exactly like the mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta and the Camorra? Is the personality of adolescents and young people destroyed so that instead of feelings only fear and terror take over? Who and how will be able to help these people rebuild their personality according to the canons that should have guided a normal path of evolutionary psychology?
The stench emanating from those who coerced, coerced, enslaved and raped these little girls far surpasses the smell of a sewer. And anyone who smells like a sewer is better off spending a few years in the sewer itself, not in the sense of a dehumanization of the rights of prisoners, but in the sense of heavy sentences like those that the mafia took with the 41-bis wanted by the then minister Martelli after the deaths of Falcone and Borsellino, with the massacres that surrounded it.
In these days, when there is so much discussion about the reform of the judiciary and after everything that has come out of the Palamara case, well, this is a breath of fresh air for all of us Italian citizens. Total and absolute applause to the Venetian judiciary who dealt with this case, believed in it, and to the carabinieri who worked on it for two years and finally defeated this gang.
Be careful, however, don’t think that the issue is limited to Venice and don’t think that this is the only criminal organization that operates within this world. Maybe, just maybe, it could also be the case that there is a single organization that operates throughout the national territory; if not unique, at least connected, and we have had an inkling of this too in our journalistic investigations by Dritto e Rovescio for some time. It is the moment to absolutely not let our guard down but to proceed because what is involved is the safety of citizens, the enslavement of minors, including pregnant ones, the horrendous brutality of some individuals who carry out this violence and who manage this crazy amount of money. Who will give some stolen people back their sense of security when they go about their normal lives, perhaps taking public transport or walking calmly down the street? The work began well and must continue with the same strength, the same courage, the same tenacity that characterized this operation coordinated by the Court of Venice and the Carabinieri.
