History
In the 1980s, Bardellino realized that cocaine, not heroin, would become the more profitable drug and organized a trafficking operation smuggling it from Latin America to Aversa via a fish flour import-export business. Heroin was smuggled as well, and shipments to the Gambino crime family were concealed inside espresso filters. When one shipment was intercepted by the authorities, Bardellino reportedly called John Gotti and told him; "Don't worry, now we're sending twice as much the other way".
During the Camorra war of the 1980s, the Casalesi sided with Nuova Famiglia against Raffaele Cutolo. In one incident, Casalesi members positioned a machine gun on a hill in Ponte Annicchino and opened fire, killing four Cutolo members. After the Casalesi achieved dominance in their area following the defeat of Cutolo, Antonio Bardellino settled in Santo Domingo with his family. But unrest grew within the Casalesi.
Heading up the clan's military operations were Francesco Schiavone and Francesco Bidognetti, and they thought Bardellino's right hand man Mario Iovine was too close to Bardellino but did not approve of their plans for autonomy. They convinced Bardellino to order the murder of Iovine's brother, and then told Iovine that Bardellino had his brother killed based purely on a rumour. Iovine murdered Bardellino in retaliation in his Brazilian villa in 1988, meeting him under the pretext of discussing their cocaine operation. A number of men loyal to Bardellino were subsequently murdered.
Francesco Schiavone took over as leader. In the early 1990s another war broke out between Schiavone's men and those loyal to another boss, Vincenzo de Falco, who was shot dead in 1991. During this war Mario Iovine was also killed, sprayed by bullets by de Falco's men while in a telephone booth in Portugal. The war lasted four years. In March 2004, Francesco Schiavone's cousin, Francesco Cicciariello Schiavone, was arrested in Poland and charged with 10 homicides, three kidnappings, nine attempted homicides and extortion.
Read more about this topic: Casalesi Clan
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