Lecce court orders asset seizure worth at least 600mila euro in Brindisi

The Lecce court's preventive measures section ordered the seizure of assets with an estimated total value of at least €600,000 from T.P. and his family members, the Carabinieri provincial command in Brindisi said. The order was issued at the proposal of the district anti-mafia directorate. The measure covers a bar in Mesagne and the adjoining property of about 1,000 square metres, a vehicle-trading business in Carovigno, an apartment in Brindisi, a villa with land in Torre Santa Susanna, several cars and a number of bank and postal accounts.

Investigators said the bar served as a logistics base for the criminal organisation and a reference point for controlling the illegal betting network. The premises had already been placed under preventive seizure in December 2025. The asset checks by the Carabinieri's investigative unit in Brindisi, coordinated by the Lecce district anti-mafia directorate, covered more than 25 years of the suspect's activity. According to the investigators, the checks showed a significant disproportion between the family unit's officially declared income and the accumulated assets.

The seizure follows the anti-mafia operation of 15 December 2025, when the Carabinieri executed a custodial order in prison against the suspect and other alleged members of the Pasimeni-Vitale-Vicientino clan. The investigation had identified, among the illegal activities alleged against the group, the running of a gambling and illegal betting system, as well as extortion, usury and drug trafficking. The Carabinieri described T.P. as a leading figure of the Mesagne branch of the Sacra Corona Unita and a lieutenant of D.V.