Messina Denaro aimed to purchase 12 Coop supermarkets in Sicily.
The mafia aimed to enter the large food distribution by purchasing, through complicit entrepreneurs, 12 supermarkets under the Coop brand. This emerges from the investigation by the Palermo Dda which led to 11 arrests. The project, which was supposed to be carried out through the fictitious attribution of shares of the company used for the purchase, involved entrepreneurs from Salemi close to Messina Denaro, Andrea and Salvatore Angelo, and mafia suspects like Vincenzo Lo Piccolo.
According to investigators, they were all hidden partners of Grande Distribuzione Sicilia, which was supposed to acquire the supermarkets. The deal fell through because Coop Alleanza 3.0, the owner of Coop stores in Sicily, chose to sell the stores to another buyer.
“You need to get involved in the business with Coop,” said one of the investigated individuals, unaware of being intercepted. “We will register the company in Milan. We don’t want to make it look like the owners are Sicilian.” “If my friends have to take over Coop – explained Vincenzo Lo Piccolo – and by taking over Coop they belong to us and there are our workers.”
The parties interested in the deal also planned to have the supermarkets sell their products. “This gang that is about to take over Coop as soon as they get in control, we will be able to sell our cheeses,” they said.
In the business, Giovanni Beltrallo, already investigated for mafia, and Bartolomeo Anzalone, close to Domenico Scimonelli, an entrepreneur in the large distribution believed to be a front for Matteo Messina Denaro, were also involved.
Messina Denaro puntava all’acquisto di 12 supermercati a marchio Coop della Sicilia
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