Italian financial police have executed a new detention order against a married couple already incarcerated for loan sharking and extortion, adding the significant legal aggravation of mafia-style methods to their charges. The Guardia di Finanza from the Catanzaro provincial command, collaborating with central investigative services in Rome and the Cosenza provincial command, served the precautionary custody order in prison to the two individuals, originally from Acquappesa but residing in Cetraro in the Calabria region.
The couple, identified as Franco Pinto and Cinzia Maritato, had already been detained since April of this year under an order issued by the Paola Tribunal judge for preliminary investigations for usury and extortion crimes committed over more than thirty years against a Cetraro entrepreneur. The current judicial measure represents an escalation in the case, with prosecutors from the Catanzaro District Anti-Mafia Directorate securing court approval for the enhanced charges based on additional investigative findings.
Investigators determined that the loan sharking and extortion activities displayed characteristics of organized crime methodology, connecting the case to broader criminal operations in the Cetraro area. The town is known to host one of Calabria's most powerful 'ndrine, the local term for mafia clans, specifically the organization linked to Franco Muto, also known as "u luongu" or "the fish king." This criminal group has been associated with numerous violent incidents in recent years.
The enhanced charges reflect law enforcement's ongoing efforts to combat organized crime's economic control in the Tyrrhenian Cosentino area. The case demonstrates how authorities are using legal tools to address not only individual criminal acts but also the systematic methods that characterize mafia operations, particularly those involving long-term exploitation of local businesses through usury and extortion schemes that can persist for decades.
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