Corruption Scandal in Aversa: Eight Arrested and Five Under Investigation

Storm at the Municipality of Aversa. Corruption, material falsification, destruction, and concealment of true documents: eight people arrested, placed under house arrest, and five under investigation. These include entrepreneurs, municipal employees (specifically the Head of the Technical Office of the Municipality of Aversa and a surveyor at the time of the events employed at the Private Building Sector of the same Entity) and private technicians concerning the issuance and management of building permits for the construction of residential buildings in the territory of the Municipality of Aversa. The investigation, initiated in January 2022, is by the Prosecutor's Office of North Naples. The investigative activity has highlighted a consolidated modus operandi of entrepreneurs in the construction sector, who - thanks to the intermediation of party technicians and professionals - were able to establish corrupt relationships with public officials and, in this way, to overcome - through the payment of sums of money or other benefits - all the various problems related to the investigation and the subsequent approval of the authorizations, also through the suppression and substitution of existing documents within the various pending building practices at the Municipality. It was documented that a professional, as a party technician and without any employment relationship established with the Municipality of Aversa, in order to quickly obtain building permits, took care of - on behalf of the Head of the Municipal Technical Office - all the pending practices at the office, thus eliminating the significant backlog. In other cases, resulting in discrepancies between the official documentation and the state of the places, with compensation in money in favor of the municipal technicians, official documents were removed from the municipal archive in order to alter the procedural process and thus arrive at the approval of the projects presented. The authorizations, in fact, were issued based on a false representation of the places before the operations, artfully made through the substitution of already existing graphics, or in violation of the current building and regional regulations called "House Plan". Furthermore, some residential complexes, based on illegitimate building permits, were built in the absence of a prior subdivision and, in particular, construction works were carried out consisting of the demolition and reconstruction of a building with the construction of 19 extensively sized units in addition to accessory premises, 'in place of the few and pre-existing 6 modest housing units originally of a rural nature and other modest constructions (mostly shacks), with an increased urban load, producing significant repercussions in terms of human presence, demand for works, infrastructure, and circulation of transport vehicles. Within the scope of the investigation, a seizure was also carried out in March 2023 of a building constructed in Aversa.