Italian police have arrested four people on suspicion of a Camorra plot to infiltrate a Naples hospital, stage fake accidents for insurance payouts and illegally transport corpses in ambulances fitted with oxygen masks. The investigation, based on testimony from a state witness, uncovered a web of criminal activity allegedly carried out by members of the Contini clan inside San Giovanni Bosco hospital.
Prosecutors said the clan effectively took control of the hospital’s coffee bar, cafeteria services and vending machines, exploiting an association operating in the ambulance sector with the complicity of medical staff, security guards and other employees. The organisation’s capacity for intimidation was used to bend public officials and private citizens to its will.
Among the alleged crimes are insurance frauds involving staged road traffic accidents, paid false witnesses and fabricated expert reports to secure compensation payouts. In return for cooperation secured through intimidation, the clan received illicit favours, including false medical certificates used to obtain unlawful releases from prison and the illegal transport of corpses by ambulance rather than through authorised funeral services.
An emergency room doctor is accused of falsifying the discharge papers of a deceased patient to allow the body to be taken home in a private ambulance linked to the clan. To evade checks, the body was placed on a stretcher with an oxygen mask, creating the appearance that the patient was still alive. Families were charged between €700 and €1,200 for the service.
A psychiatrist employed by the local health authority is under investigation for allegedly issuing false medical certificates to individuals linked to Camorra clans, enabling them to obtain judicial benefits and, in one case, release from prison on the basis of fabricated psychiatric evaluations. A lawyer accused of external participation in a mafia association allegedly acted as a conduit of information to and from prison environments, particularly regarding monthly payments to families of incarcerated members.
