Mafia accused of using Naples hospital for fraud and illegal corpse transport

On Wednesday, Italian police arrested four people for an alleged Camorra conspiracy to infiltrate a Naples hospital, stage accidents for insurance payouts, and transport corpses on stretchers with oxygen masks to profit from private ambulance services, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.

The investigation, based on the testimony of a state witness, uncovered a network of profitable criminal activities allegedly carried out by members of the Contini clan of the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, at the San Giovanni Bosco hospital. Prosecutors stated that "the operations were made possible by the organization's capacity for intimidation, a force that subjugated both public officials and private citizens to its will."

According to investigators, the clan effectively took control of the hospital's cafe-bar and cafeteria, as well as the snack and drink vending machines scattered throughout the building.

Prosecutors allege that the Camorra "exploited an association operating in the ambulance services sector, relying on the complicity of medical and paramedical personnel, private security guards, and employees of other firms working in the hospital."

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With the help of compliant doctors and specialists, investigators believe the suspects also orchestrated a series of insurance frauds on behalf of the Contini clan. These allegedly included staging road accidents, recruiting paid fake witnesses, and producing fabricated expert opinions to secure compensation payouts.

Prosecutors claim that cooperation was secured through intimidation and violence. In return, the clan and its families received illicit services, such as the issuance of false medical certificates, including those used for illegal release from prison, and the illegal transportation of corpses by ambulance rather than through authorized funeral services.

An emergency room doctor is accused of falsifying discharge documents for a patient who had already died, allegedly to allow her body to be transported home by a private ambulance linked to the clan.

Prosecutors allege that the ambulance management system operated with a grim logic: deceased patients were illegally removed from the hospital, bypassing the morgue. To avoid checks, the body was placed on a stretcher with an oxygen mask, creating the appearance that the patient was still alive during the journey home.

"Families were charged between 700 and 1200 euros for the service," prosecutors said.

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Also under investigation is a psychiatrist working for a local health authority. She allegedly issued false medical certificates on behalf of individuals linked to Camorra clans, allowing them to receive judicial payments and, in at least one case, to be released from prison based on fabricated psychiatric evaluations.

Among those served with judicial orders is a lawyer accused of external participation in a mafia association. Prosecutors allege he acted as an intermediary for information to and from prisons, particularly regarding monthly payments – known as mesate – intended for the families of incarcerated members.