The former agricultural cooperative in Beša, rented by the company Prodest. Antonino Vadala and Pietro Catroppa run a bull farm there. (source: Marko Erd)
A derelict farm on the outskirts of Beša, near Michalovce, holds more than just crumbling buildings – it harbours a shadowy past linked to organised crime. Among the ruins, one modern-looking structure stands out, yet it remains inaccessible, Sme reports.
The farm is owned by Prodest, a company that raises bulls. Its owner and director is Italian businessman Pietro Catroppa, but the real intrigue lies with his cousin: Antonino Vadala, a 49-year-old man with past ties to the powerful Calabrian mafia, ’Ndrangheta. Vadala was also linked to Slovak politics through his connections to Smer politician Viliam Jasaň and his former relationship with Mária Trošková, a former aide to Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Italian media, citing police sources, reported that Vadala had at least one phone call with Fico.
Vadala was initially suspected in the 2018 murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. While no evidence linked him to the killings, Kuciak had been investigating Vadala’s suspiciously successful EU farm subsidies, despite his firms being in debt before he was murdered.
Lorries intended for transporting bulls in and out. (source: Marko Erd)
In 2019, an Italian court sentenced Vadala to more than nine years in prison for drug trafficking. He served less than four years in Turin before returning to Slovakia, where he continues to be linked to the Beša farm. Locals report seeing him there at least once since his release in 2022. Meanwhile, Catroppa, the farm’s official owner, denies that Vadala visits and avoids further questions.
“No, he does not come here,” said Catroppa, reportedly a key figure in the ’Ndrina in Slovakia (the ’Ndrina is a cell of the Calabrian mafia), in an interview with Sme. “I come. And my employees.”
The farm operates on land rented from German businessman Christian Dillhöfer, who owns most of the farmland in Beša. Prodest leases ten buildings from the local municipality for just €100 per month – a small but welcome income for a struggling village of 365 mostly elderly residents. However, only one building has been renovated, while the others remain in ruins.
Antonino Vadala (source: TASR)
Beša’s former mayor, Alexander Kalán, recalls Vadala personally working on the farm in 2017, just before Kuciak’s murder. “He was right there, mixing concrete with the workers,” he told Sme. After Kuciak’s murder in 2018, Vadala left the village and only reappeared in 2022, when he resumed cattle farming.
Though some residents struggle to believe that he has mafia ties, his company, Bovinex Espe, was flagged by Slovak police more than a decade ago for suspected drug smuggling under the cover of cattle exports to Turkey.
In 2019, a now-deceased Slovak customs official, Ladislav Brada, suggested to Sme that drug smuggling via meat shipments was plausible, stating, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” That same year, an Italian court convicted Vadala of drug trafficking.
Despite this, his name remains tied to the farm in Beša, where bulls are regularly transported away after just two months.
