Stepping off a plane from Paris, Alleged Corsican gang leader Laurent Emmanuelli was arrested in Bastia on Friday.
The 32-year-old man was detained by a large gendarmerie force. Police suspect Emmanuelli of running one of 25 criminal gangs operating on the Mediterranean island, part of France.
He is considered close to the Moretti brothers and a potential “support” of the Orsoni clan in Balagne, north-west Corsica.
The clan war seemed based on a “struggle for spheres of influence between an established group and the rising generation,” embodied by Emmanuelli.
In May 2019, he and his 22-year-old right-wing aide Antoine Francisci were suspected in an attempted attack on Dominique “Mimi” Costa. Francisci was killed by several shotgun shots while riding a buggy in Pietralba, about 15 kilometres from Moltifao, a Costa family stronghold. One of investigators’ versions is that Costa learned that two men were planning to attack him and took “preventive self-defence,” sources close to police told AFP in July 2020.
His arrest on Friday came as part of an investigation by the Specialised Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, responsible for organised crime cases, as well as a judicial enquiry by an investigating judge from Bastia.
