Italian news report last week: Bastian Dalli (John Dalli’s criminal brother) named as a Malta contact for the Naples Camorra, who describe him as “the Maltese prime minister’s (John Dalli) brother”
Il Fatto Quotidiano published this report last week, which I have translated from the original Italian. If somebody knows what office or department ‘Dna’ stands for, please let the rest of us know. (Lots of people have since sent in the information that Dna stands for the National Anti-Mafia Directorate. I now realise that it’s actually in the report’s closing paras, but my Italian is so shaky that I didn’t work it out.))
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THE CAMORRA AND ONLINE GAMING: “CALL THE BROTHER OF THE MALTESE PRIME MINISTER”
In an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of Naples, telephone conversations were recorded between a member of the Zaza (Camorra) clan and a member of the Fidanzati (Camorra) family. They discuss opening an online casino. Bastian Dalli is named as a contact: “Tell him you’re my close friend.” The annual Dna (National Anti-Mafia Directorate) report sounds the alarm: “Criminal infiltration has increased, the legislature has failed”.
Opening an online gambling site to make cash with some unexpected help: this was one of the business objectives of the Zaza-Mazzarella (Camorra) clan, as revealed through an investigation by the Prosecutor of Naples, which documents Il Fatto Quotidiano has read.
The operation has led to the arrest of 29 people and further confirmation of the criminal groups operating in the gaming industry, where there is lots of money to be made and few risks, as explained by the National Anti-Mafia Directorate in its last report.
Ciro Smiraglia, the new mover in the clan, is a nephew of the late clan-boss Michele Zaza, who has been in prison since 5 February. He is very active in the online gaming field. In Rome he ran two gaming rooms and wanted to open new ones, and he also wants to start an online gaming site approved by the state authorities. This is why his business partner Andrea Ricci, who was also arrested on charges of having favoured the Zaza clan, initiated contacts with experts in the field.
Their online gaming site was to be hosted by a server in Malta. Ricci turned to Gaetano Fidanzato (who is not implicated in this investigation), a member of the notorious Cosa Nostra family. “Fidanzati’s father and uncles,” the investigating judge writes in the report, “have been identified by several informers as important men of honour.”
Ricci asks an important international contact to start the online gaming operation. Fidanzati says: “You’re in clover.”
In subsequent (recorded) telephone conversations, Fidanzati offers access to his contact, a certain ‘Bastian’. He explains who this Bastian is. “Bastian is the brother of the (Maltese) prime minister. He told me that there is no need to go through the Fenechs, because we have them. They operate online casinos but there is room for more.” What he means, in short, is that in Malta there is scope to open online casinos and you can use good contacts.
Ricci then reports all of this to Ciro Smiraglia, but they cut that telephone conversation short saying that they should talk about it face to face. In the next few days, as promised, Fidanzati sends a text message to Ricci, giving him Bastian Dalli’s mobile telephone number (Dalli is not involved in this investigation). “Tell him you’re my close friend on the matter of this online casino. Hugs, guy.”
An entire chapter, written by the magistrate Diana De Martino, in the National Anti-Mafia Directorate’s last report, is dedicated the subject of the network of contacts in online gaming. One of the games pulled in 9% more in 2012 than it did the previous year: 87 billion euros.
Players tend to prefer standard methods like video-lottery and new-slot, but games are growing fast: up by 10-16% with an overall increase of 60%. And while citizens go into debt, the state earns virtually nothing. The tax revenue – the report says – is ow because video-lottery is taxed at 5%, sports betting at an average of 4%, and cash poker and online casino games at as low as 0.6%.”
Online gaming is prey to organised crime, which needs only to work through illegal sites operated by foreign companies with servers located in tax havens (the magistrate reports), with consequent damage to the (Italian) state coffers and consumers.
The chapter wraps up by lamenting these failures: “The aims of the legislature, in its liberalisation of 2003 and subsequent legislation, were totally frustrated. Those aims were to increase the supply of online gaming so as to attract and retain players in the legal system and drain criminal resources by diverting business away from them. But the net result is that online gaming has increased voluminously (with a range of social implications which are not within the remit of this office to examine), and this inevitably attracted the criminal mafia, which has exponentially increased its infiltration of (legal) online gaming.”
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http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2014/02/12/mafia-e-azzardo-il-mafioso-al-camorrista-chiama-il-fratello-del-premier-maltese/878289/
I think DNA is Direzione Nazionale Antimafia.
Dna – Direzione nazionale antimafia
http://www.tribunalenapoli.it/voceglossario.aspx?p=dir_naz_antimafia
Dna = Direzione nazionale anti-mafia.
Tucked away in a report in Times of Malta was the government statement with respect to the soon-to-be-announced launch of several gaming companies.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140218/local/plans-for-new-yacht-marinas-fibre-optic-network-and-white-rocks.507351
DNA is Direzione Nazzionale Anti-mafia
The article in Times of Malta was most probably referring to online digital gaming and not online gambling.
Dna stands for Direzione Nazionale Antimafia.
DNA – Direzione Nazionale Antimafia http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direzione_nazionale_antimafia
Direzione Nazionale Antimafia
DNA = Direzione nazionale antimafia
or National Anti-Mafia Directorate
[Daphne – Terrific, thanks.]
DNA = Direzione Nazionale Antimafia
That’s the acronym for the Direzione Nazionale Anti-Mafia.
[Daphne – I now realise it’s in the report, but my Italian is so bad I can never be certain.]
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direzione_nazionale_antimafia
Is the “Fenec” a link to Portomaso Casino?
[Daphne – I go to all the trouble of translating the thing for you into idiomatic English, and you must insist on reading it in the original Italian then popping in to ask a question like that. Read the translation. It’s complete with the information you require. Yes of course it’s the Portomaso Fenechs – exactly how many casinos are there in Malta.]
The magistrates who work with the DNA are always in clear and present danger living in the direct line of fire, like Giovanni Falcone, his wife and protection officers and Paolo Borsellino and his protection officers.
After all these deaths the Italian government of the day, early in 1992, sent an elite parachute regiment to Sicily to increase government presence on the island.
Giovanni Kessler learnt the ropes in Caltanisetta’s Procura, also known as Fort Apache. And still, we get dishwashing idiots trying to rubbish these selfless men living with a death sentence.
Times of Malta put up a poll lately, ‘execution style murders, what’s going on?’ Duh.
John Dalli met his match with an anti-mafia magistrate.
Bastjan Dalli is mentioned in a Camorra/Mafia report by a DNA magistrate.
Ok, so Gaetano Fidanzati, Siclian Cosa Nostra, has Bastjan Dalli’s mobile number.
He also seems confident that his ‘raccomandazione’ won’t go unheeded, one extended family.
Why am I not surprised?
Interesting that they think Bastjan is the PM’s brother. That would make Johnny Cash the PM wouldn’t it?
Perhaps not so far from the truth.
They better not mess with the Mafia. Bluffing their way into Cosa Nostra eh?
But they have seen the movie “Wise Guys” several times and they think they are up to speed.
And….snap.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/courtandpolice/Mafia-boss-texted-Bastjan-Dalli-s-number-to-associate-20140219
That was quick.
Quite specific as well, the ‘resuttana mandamento’, now where did they get that?
And no, it’s not ‘according to a magistrate’, it’s a recorded telephone conversation.
Mhix fier Saviour.
I stand to be corrected on this one, but if I’m not mistaken one of your readers posted a comment here about the present government/PL claiming it ‘a criminal organisation’. I’m not surprised.
So where is the new PM’s brother hiding these days?
Wasn’t Iosef Galea of the snus scandal a consultant at the Gaming Authority?
Is anyone surprised that John Dalli is the de facto PM of Malta?
Sounds like Belarus, where the President is just a figure head and the power lies behind the scenes.
One has to admit that, as a crook, John Dalli is quite smart. To the moron Labour voters, he morphed from Daewoo Dalli to hailed prime minister behind the scenes.
By the way, good luck with that reshuffle, John.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-02-19/news/pn-mp-raises-point-of-order-over-ministers-disrespectful-act-4001300480/
Two comments :
i) Helena Dalli tried to deny what she did, and on being reminded that she was recorded and on air via the internet, she said that she was reading those papers. To quote Konrad Mizzi :” Onorevoli Ministru, shame on you”
ii) Former Minister Joe Cassar has excellent eyesight. She wrote on less than half of an A4 paper with a ball pen or similar and he still managed to read it correctly from that distance.
From what I see, Muscat wants to net the big fish which are not his pets, his aquarium can only hold a limited number.
“They operate online casinos but there is room for more.”
Room 1400, Block 14, Portomaso to be exact.
Panther Entertainment Ltd, Portomaso, 1400 Block 14, St. Julians, STJ 4014, Malta
http://www.pantherbet.com/portal/portal/contact_en.jsp
http://online.casinocity.com/casinos/black-silk-casino/