It gets its name from the "Petit Bar," an establishment in Ajaccio (on the cours Napoléon), owned by Ange-Marie Michelosi, a lieutenant of Jean-Jérôme Colonna, from whose gang it is said to originate.
Engaged in extortion against merchants, active in the Greater Ajaccio region but also on the mainland and abroad, it was presented in 2022 as the most powerful criminal group in Corsica, the only one to have succeeded in creating a network of political and economic influence worthy of a true mafia.
[1][2] [3] Members of the gang are suspected in the assassination of the lawyer Antoine Sollacaro, former president of the bar of Ajaccio, defender of the nationalist Yvan Colonna and Alain Orsoni.
In April 2013, André Bacchiolelli and Mickaël Ettori were indicted for this assassination and Pascal Porri for "criminal association and concealment of motorcycle theft".
Six men close to the Petit Bar gang, including Stéphane Raybier, were sentenced in 2011 by the Marseilles court to prison terms for having wanted to assassinate the former nationalist leader Alain Orsoni in 2008 in Ajaccio.
For Antony Perrino, this would be the repayment of a loan granted by A. M. to Jules Filippeddu, a restaurateur in Bonifacio and fortunate operator of slot machines in Brazil.
Close to Antony Perrino and originally from Corte, Jean-Pierre Valentini was one of the executives of the oil brokerage and maritime chartering company Trafigura, created in 1993 by students of Marc Rich, Claude Dauphin, and Eric de Turckheim, and involved in the 2006 Probo Koala affair.
In December 2019, Jean-Pierre Valentini made payments to the benefit of a real estate developer ("A. M.") investing in La Trétoire (Seine-et-Marne) and Paris 8th, an intermediary suspected of the Petit Bar gang.
In March 2019, Mickaël Ettori, known as "Micka," a member of this group, and Antony Perrino, a Corsican entrepreneur, invested in real estate in Courchevel (Savoie).
Justice is investigating the links between Mickaël Ettori and a former manager of a Parisian gaming club and minority shareholder of the Luxembourg free port.