It is believed that Antonio Bardellino was the initiator of the Casalesi clan in the area of Casal di Principe and San Cipriano d'Aversa, especially due to the transformation he implemented within the clan.
In the 1980s, Bardellino realized that cocaine, not heroin, would become the more profitable drug and organized a trafficking operation smuggling it from Latin America to Aversa via a fish flour import-export business.