Mafia boss camouflaged in the Valais as a « geometer »

One of the most powerful clans of the Cosa Nostra installed a camouflage company in Valais, through which, among other things, mafia money from China was locked to Italy and projects in Brazil.

The Pagliarelli family from the district of the same name in Palermo is one of the most powerful clans of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.

In the 1980s, the Pagliarelli boss Antonio Rotolo threaded the purchase of Morphinbase in Switzerland. The fabric was delivered by ship from Syria to Sicily, the chemists of the mafia made Heroin out of it. The drug was delivered to the largest part to the USA, as camouflage for trade pizzerias served. The matter went down in history as a « pizza connection ». When it came to washing the revenues from the heroin business, Switzerland came to the train a second time.

Boss Rotolo, now 79, is in custody for life. His successor, Giovanni Motisi, 66, has been under -moving since 1998, is considered the most dangerous fleeting criminal in Italy. Last year, the Italian police published a new phantom image of the sought -after, adapted to his age.

Approaching was agreed at the meeting in Sitten

On December 4, 2018, a certain Giuseppe Calvaruso, 41, became new regent of the murderous Pagliarelli clan. This new boss also has a special relationship with Switzerland, as Italian court documents show.

The files show that representatives of the clan in Calvaruso’s order appeared in 2014 with a clear goal in Switzerland. First in Ticino, then in the Valais. A meeting with a trustee took place in Sion in December 2014. Modalities are agreed to found a stock corporation. The clan wanted to set up a kind of surgical basis.

The large clan report

They are widespread and yet we know little about them: criminal clans undermine Switzerland. How could it get that far? What has to change now? And how does the criminal network really work? We pursue these questions in a multi -part series.

All parts of the series