di Gian­luca Di Feo

Un doc­u­mento trasmesso dall’ambasciata Usa in Spagna cita lo scrit­tore ital­iano sulla pen­e­trazione della mafia in Rus­sia, in Cat­a­logna e in Costa Brava.

jpg 2109808 Wikileaks, c’è pure Saviano.

Roberto Saviano

Sfogli i files seg­reti di Wik­ileaks e spunta Roberto Saviano, che tiene banco anche nei col­lo­qui sulla lotta inter­nazionale alla piovra russa.

In un doc­u­mento ris­er­vato trasmesso a Wash­ing­ton dall’ambasciata di Madrid si dis­cute infatti dell’infiltrazione delle mafie in Spagna e della capac­ità delle autorità iberiche nel com­bat­tere il fenom­eno. La minac­cia è soprat­tutto quella delle cosche prove­ni­enti dall’ex Urss, che stanno col­o­niz­zando alcune delle local­ità tur­is­tiche più famose della Catalogna.

Per questo i diplo­matici statu­nitensi offrono col­lab­o­razione, soprat­tutto nella cac­cia ai cap­i­tali sporchi e al rici­clag­gio: ne dis­cu­tono con Ger­ardo Cavero e Fer­nando Bermejo, rispet­ti­va­mente procu­ra­tore capo antidroga e anti­mafia di Barcellona.

Il doc­u­mento risale al 15 otto­bre 2009. Si parla a lungo della pre­senza crim­i­nale russa in Spagna e degli effetti della cat­tura del padrino Gen­na­dios Petrov, avvenuta nel 2008, che non ha però dimi­nu­ito l’afflusso di inves­ti­menti sospetti prove­ni­enti da Mosca. I nuovi boss — sec­ondo gli inquirenti cata­lani — sono venuti in Costa Brava come tur­isti e poco alla volta si sono accorti dell’opportunità offerta dalla debolezza dei con­trolli e dal fiorire del mer­cato balneare.

La parte più del­i­cata del col­lo­quio riguarda la cor­ruzione: Bermejo è anche respon­s­abile delle indagini sulle tan­genti nella regione. Per questo è lieto della pro­posta statu­nitense di con­tribuire alle inchi­este sul rici­clag­gio. «Bermejo è d’accordo sul fatto che il “denaro parla” e questo è par­ti­co­lar­mente vero quando le somme offerte come mazzette sono così. Bermejo ha poi fatto pre­sente che in Italia la mafia è così potente da potere com­prare i giu­dici. Ha aggiunto che lo scrit­tore ital­iano Roberto Saviano, famoso per le sue opere sulla mafia, ha com­men­tato che il sis­tema giudiziario in Spagna è così cor­rotto che la mafia non ha bisogno di cor­rompere i magistrati».

E l’autore del dis­pac­cio diplo­matico aggiunge una sua val­u­tazione: «I fun­zionari amer­i­cani hanno capito che Bermejo creda che ci sia un ele­mento di ver­ità nelle parole di Saviano».

Qui di seguito, il doc­u­mento orig­i­nale pub­bli­cato da Wikileaks:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 001003

SIPDIS

FOR ALEX MCKNIGHT AND STACIE ZERDECKI OF EUR/WE
ALESSANDRO NARDI OF EUR/ERA
JENNIFER MCELVEEN AND STEPHEN WOROBEC OF INR/TNC
JOHN REGAS OF NIC
THOMAS FIRESTONE OF EMBASSY MOSCOW

SCOTT HARRIS OF INL
PASS TO BARRY M. BRAUN AND KAREN GREENAWAY OF FBI’S
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION
PASS TO TOM OTT AND BRUCE OHR OF DOJ’S CRIMINAL DIVISION
EO 12958 DECL: 10/15/2019
TAGS PREL, PINR, KCRM, KCOR, KJUS, SP, RS
SUBJECT: SPAIN: ANTI-MAFIA PROSECUTORS WELCOME USG
OUTREACH, SEEK COLLABORATION
REF: A. MADRID 870 B. MADRID 869
MADRID 00001003 001.2 OF 002

Clas­si­fied By: Act­ing Deputy Chief of Mis­sion William Dun­can for rea­son s 1.4 (b) and (d)

1. © SUMMARY. Embassy Madrid POLOFF and POL/GSO Offi­cer from the Barcelona CG on Sep­tem­ber 29 met Ger­ardo Cavero, Barcelona’s chief pros­e­cu­tor on counter-narcotics and orga­nized crime, and Fer­nando Bermejo, the city’s pros­e­cu­tor for anti-mafia, anti-corruption and money laun­der­ing issues. They also are dual-hatted as spe­cial pros­e­cu­tors on these issues within Catalonia’s Supe­rior Court of Jus­tice who work in con­junc­tion with coun­ter­parts from the national gov­ern­ment in Madrid. The two wel­comed USG out­reach to begin a work­ing rela­tion­ship based on mutual inter­ests. They expressed inter­est in meet­ing DOJ and/or FBI offi­cials dur­ing pro­posed travel to Barcelona on Novem­ber 13 to speak to pri­vate audi­ences on crim­i­nal jus­tice issues, money laun­der­ing issues as well as the Russ­ian mafia (See Ref A). COMMENT: Sep­a­rately, Embassy Madrid under­stands from the US Con­sular Agent in La Palma that Mal­lor­can author­i­ties involved in the June 2008 arrest of Russ­ian crimelord Gen­na­dios Petrov (see Ref B) are pre­pared to host a din­ner for vis­it­ing USG offi­cials on Novem­ber 11 or 12. END SUMMARY AND COMMENT.

//Taking on the Russ­ian Mafia//

2. © Bermejo claimed that there is large scale money laun­der­ing going on in Cat­alo­nia and “many, many” mem­bers of the Russ­ian mafia are active in the region. (NOTE: In Spain, the term “Russ­ian mafia” refers to orga­nized crime mem­bers from not only Rus­sia but also all other for­mer mem­bers of the USSR.) He and Cavero sug­gested that pub­lic dec­la­ra­tions by senior Span­ish offi­cials in mid-2008 (see Ref A) that the raid that nabbed Petrov and oth­ers had “decap­i­tated” the Russ­ian mafia in Spain were opti­mistic state­ments made in a moment of eupho­ria that did not reflect the cur­rent real­ity. They asserted that the Russ­ian mafia pres­ence has not dimin­ished. Bermejo said that Russ­ian mafia lead­ers were orig­i­nally drawn to Spain’s Costa Brava as a vaca­tion des­ti­na­tion. Rec­og­niz­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties and lax law enforce­ment, how­ever, the Russ­ian mafia sub­se­quently started using Cat­alo­nia as a base for money laun­der­ing and other ille­gal ven­tures. He asserted that Cat­alo­nia can­not allow itself to become a refuge for the Russ­ian mafia nor can it prej­u­dice the invest­ments of legit­i­mate Eurasian businessmen.

3. XXXXXXXXXXXX

. END COMMENT.

4. © Bermejo agreed with the notion that money talks, and added this is espe­cially true when the amounts being offered as bribes are so large. Bermejo related to USG offi­cials a say­ing that in Italy, the mafia is so pow­er­ful that it can buy judges. He then added that Ital­ian author Roberto Saviano, famous for his work on the Ital­ian mafia, has com­mented that the judi­cial sys­tem in Spain is so cor­rupt that the mafia does not need to buy judges. COMMENT: USG offi­cials under­stood that Bermejo believed there was an ele­ment of truth in what Saviano said. END COMMENT.

5. © Bermejo and Cavero are part of a small office — three pros­e­cu­tors and 4–5 staffers — that is short-handed because their work­load is so exten­sive. Bermejo was pro­moted to his anti-mafia post in June. Press com­men­tary prior to his appoint­ment iden­ti­fied Bermejo as the best can­di­date for the job. He took over for David Mar­tinez Madero, who stepped down fol­low­ing death threats by the Russ­ian mafia (See Ref A). Bermejo stated that he has inher­ited the death threat, which is against the per­son fill­ing the anti-mafia pros­e­cu­tor post rather than the indi­vid­ual per se. Bermejo, who had a body­guard when he worked as a pros­e­cu­tor in San Sebas­t­ian due to threats from Basque ter­ror­ist group ETA, will have a body­guard in his cur­rent post. Bermejo, who men­tioned sev­eral times in pass­ing that he cur­rently works closely with Aus­trian and Swiss author­i­ties, indi­cated his will­ing­ness to meet Embassy LEGAT and DEA offi­cials dur­ing one of his upcom­ing trips to Madrid. CHACON