Bombs were placed under the car of the patron’s son, but also of the captain, the ultras leader and the managers of Foggia Calcio, all of which occurred between June 2023 and May 2024. For this reason, the Bari District Anti-Mafia Directorate has requested three convictions in the abbreviated trial on the hypothesized mafia threats to the top management of Foggia Calcio to extend the control of organized crime over the sports club which ended up in judicial administration last May. The penalty requests were formulated by prosecutor Bruna Manganelli before the judge for the preliminary hearing in Bari.
The heaviest sentence, equal to 7 years, 2 months and 20 days of imprisonment, was requested for Marco Lombardi, 49 years old, a convicted felon and considered close to the Sinesi-Francavilla clan of the Foggia Society. According to the prosecution, Lombardi was the instigator of the intimidating acts. For Massimiliano Russo, 50 years old, the prosecutor’s office requested a sentence of 5 years and 10 months in prison, while for Fabio Delli Carri, 48 years old, the request is 5 years and 6 months.
The three defendants answer to attempted extortion aggravated by the mafia method and several episodes of damage. The complaints refer to a series of intimidations which, according to the investigations, were carried out to influence the management of Foggia Calcio.
The patron of Foggia Calcio, the Bari-based entrepreneur Nicola Canonico, his son Emanuele and CN Holding srl, the company that owns the club, were civil parties in the proceedings. Nicola Canonico and the holding company, assisted by the lawyer Michele Laforgia, requested damages of 3 million euros; Emanuele Canonico, defended by the lawyer Graziano Montanaro, has made a request for 500 thousand euros.
According to the investigative reconstruction, the accused would have acted with different roles in an intimidating strategy which would have included the placement of a bomb under the car of Canonico’s son and threats also addressed to the team captain, the ultras boss and some club managers.
The attacks began on June 18, 2023, with theexplosion of rifle shots idirected to the car of the then captain of Foggia, Davide Di Pasquale. They culminated with the placement of a rudimentary and dangerous explosive device near the car of Emanuele Canonico, then vice president of the Foggia Calcio 1920 club. As part of the investigations, two arson attacks on the top management’s cars were foiled. Interceptions and searches had made it possible, also through the seizure of computer material and documents (including a handwritten sheet, found in the possession of one of the suspects, on which the criminal objectives had been cryptically reported), to link, according to the investigators, all the intimidating episodes to a single direction.
The proceedings will continue on February 24, when defense arguments are scheduled before the preliminary hearing judge Giuseppe Battista. As part of the same investigation, a fourth person, 48-year-old Danilo Mustaccioli, is charged under ordinary proceedings before the Court of Foggia. In the meantime, in recent weeks Nicola Canonico has signed a preliminary sale agreement for Foggia Calcio with the entrepreneurs Antonio and Giuseppe De Vitto and Gennaro Casillo. The hearing for the issuance of the judicial authorization to the Court of Prevention of Bari is scheduled for tomorrow, before the Prevention Court of Bari sale of the club.
