Great banditry
Corsica: an island under the influence of mafias
A police report targets no less than twenty criminal teams raging in Corsica. He devotes the term “mafionalism” to point out the connections between local political groups and criminal activities.
Crime scene where a man was killed in Ajaccio on June 18, 2020. Twenty criminal bands are currently rampant in Corsica according to a report by the State.
Afp / pocard-homebian
- The Sirasco report identifies twenty active criminal bands through Corsica.
- Incendiaries are particularly targeting tourist sea walks.
- The mafia infiltration in the Corsican economy worries in the face of the extended autonomy process.
It took the intervention of a excavator to extract a white van covered with land in Urtaca in Balagne last Wednesday. This discovery could bring again clarification on the assassination on August 24, 2023 of Paul-Félix Paoli in a parking lot in Poggio-Mezzana in the eastern plain, fief of this nationalist who is also an entrepreneur in the construction sector and manager of various companies.
During this summer period when tourists come to lie on the sandy beaches and swarm in crystal clear waters of the island of beauty, the shadow share of this territory of 350,000 souls continues to worry.
A report of Sirasco (Information, Intelligence and Strategic Analysis Service), which we were able to read, lists twenty criminal bands that are stores from the north to the south of the Corse. And some of them can be considered as real mafias whose grip continues to develop while a process of autonomy is reinforced by the domination of nationalists in the political field.
Corsican and Italian mafias linked
For the first time, an official relationship clearly evokes the dangerous links here between nationalism, banditry and business under the generic term of “mafionalism”. And Paul-Félix Paoli was one of them. Although an official entrepreneur in the construction industry, the latter was also suspected of facts of extortion … and it is without surprise that the main actors in his assassination were later identified as other competing nationalists also paid in business.
Sirasco targets the team led by a certain Cédric Courbey currently imprisoned for this case with three other “partners”. “Currently located in the Plaine-Orientale, it has developed its racketeering activity even in the regions of Saint-Florent and the Rousse Island and maintains connections with organized Sardinian crime.”
Saint-François beach in Ajaccio, Corsica, July 16, 2025.
AFP / Pasal Purchard-Casabianca
The Paoli file made it possible for the first time to judge criminal connections between Corsic and Italian mafias. The assassination stages a recognized capo and fears the mafia of Puglia, the formidable Foggiana company. Escaped from a Sardinian prison in 2023, Marco Raduano was taken care of during his run by the Corsican “mafionalists” in exchange for his participation in the elimination of Paoli. Raduano himself declared it after his arrest in Aléria in February 2024 and his extradition in Italy where he asked and obtained repentant status.
Seven assassinations have intervened since the start of the year against the backdrop of the gang war in Corsica. The assassination in February at Ponte Leccia de Chloé Aldrovandi, a young law student at the University of Corte, mistakenly shot down in place of her boyfriend – very involved in banditry – has deeply shocked opinion. “I admit that, since Chloé’s death, for me things have changed. I feel uncomfortable, something has destroyed in me. What is happening there is not Corsica, “says a teacher who said, she said,” a lot of hindsight “. The island also locks itself in a new spiral of violence marked by the multiplication of criminal fires perpetrated against shops and businesses.
Tourism targeted by mafionalism
The sea walks sector, a real tourism windfall, is particularly targeted. In April, surveillance cameras surprise masked incendiaries and carrier of fuel can climb on boats anchored in the port of Saint-Florent. Two ships from the Popeye sea walk in sea are notably destroyed as well as three other pleasure vessels. The series continues in early June in the port of Calvi. Two other walking ships are also targeted. The following night, it is a cruise catamaran that goes up in smoke putting 15 unemployed sailors. A car rental company A car is also affected, eight vehicles burn overnight.
Sirasco describes a phenomenon of passing powers between heirs of the mythical clan of the Sea breeze And these new teams. Two dominant groups emerge. One located to the north of the island features the Mattei clan associated with the team known as Africans described in its singularity: “against the tide of a clan having mainly favored investments in France or abroad under the influence of Michel Tomi who built an empire in the middle of the casinos, games company or PMU in Africa, Jean-Luc Codaccioni seems to be a while The pressure increases in this sector, especially in the swing sector. ”
Further south, the Ajaccio Petit-Bar team still holds the ramp based in particular on strong connections with local “mafionalists” like Alain Lucchini or the Paoli clan. Sirasco notes that the heavy convictions recently inflicted on the hard core of the Petit-Bar in the “Email Diamant” laundering file, of which our newspaper has echoed, did not weaken this clan which, “at the head of a substantial financial windfall, has numerous connections in political and economic circles and has developed ramifications abroad”.
Dominique Yvon has been coordinating for several years a citizen platform connected to the actions of the two antimafias committees that have emerged. He also worries about the infiltration of these criminals in the political and economic sphere: “Organized crime wishes to get their hands on public money which is a considerable windfall. He is always very interested in the elections. It acts upstream on public procurement by ensuring that certain companies do not bid in favor of other entities placed under its control. ”
A reflection that weighs at a time when the National Assembly must look at a new institutional status of the island intended to expand its autonomy. What sharpen many appetites.
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