01/11/2023 06:00:00
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The investigation into the mafia in Lombardy. Those Sicilian summits to talk about superbonus.... https://www.tp24.it/immagini_artico...dei-siciliani-per-parlare-di-superbonus- nbsp.jpg
In the period between February and May 2021, two meetings were held in Terrasini, one in Palermo and two in Campobello di Mazara. Sicilians who, despite living in Lombardy, frequently returned to their homeland took part. The Prosecutor's Office tried to arrest them, but the request was rejected by the judge for preliminary investigations, who did not agree with the accusation that Cosa Nostra, Camorra and 'ndrangheta had formed a business alliance. Out of 153 arrest requests, only eleven were granted. The other suspects remain free. It is one of the implications of the "Hydra" anti-mafia operation.

During the meetings in Terrasini and in the province of Trapani, the presence of the lawyer Antonio Messina emerged , considered linked to the family of Matteo Messina Denaro. The meeting on February 2nd two years ago in Palermo attracted investigative attention because there was talk of business. Stefano and Giuseppe Fidanzati, uncle and nephew, together with others, met in an architecture studio in the center of Palermo. According to the police, the 110% superbonus for building renovations was discussed. The investigations focus on businesses managed through a network of companies based in Milan, controlled by Sicilian, Calabrian and Campania families.

Investigators believe that Gioacchino Amato, with the approval of the Fidanzati, commissioned Pietro Mannino to operate in the construction sector. Reference is made to an "architect" and a company that will be dedicated to real estate. The operations will be financed with revenues from different regions, so as not to arouse suspicion. However, Mannino did not meet expectations and this created tension and concern for investors.

Giuseppe Fidanzati is the son of Gaetano, deceased boss of the Acquasanta district of Palermo, and has served a long sentence for drugs.

The lawyer Antonio Messina, a Freemason, was convicted of international drug trafficking. After Messina Denaro's arrest, his homes were searched.

In their dialogues, Fidanzati and Messina referred to a "boy" from Castelvetrano, identified as Francesco Guttadauro, nephew of Matteo Messina Denaro. In particular, Fidanzati remembered a meeting that took place at the Trapani station with "Iddu" (he) who had been accompanied in a Mercedes by a certain "Mimmu". It is not clear whether "Iddu" refers to Guttadauro or, as investigators suspected, to Messina Denaro.

"The Cosa Nostra boss would have had a direct interest "in the huge financial deals carried out in Lombardy by the Lombard mafia system ", highlights the prosecutor of the Milan DDA Alessandra Cerreti in the appeal to the Court of Review, presented after the investigating judge Tommaso Perna rejected 142 of the 153 precautionary measures requested by the Prosecutor's Office, not recognizing the existence of the hypothesized alliance between Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra.

The figure of the former super fugitive appears in various passages of the 1,121 pages of the appeal on a criminal group which, according to investigators, exercises "in the territory all the conduct typical of mafia associations". Not an "eccentric novelty in the Milanese mafia scene" (the prosecutor specifies that he has "never claimed it was a super mafia association") but a " consortium" between criminal groups that had already emerged in investigations in the 1990s.

The connections with the "parent companies" in Southern Italy are demonstrated by various interceptions, including the sentences uttered by one of the suspects, Gioacchino Amico: "We built an empire and we got everything authorized from Milan, passing through Calabria, Naples, everywhere". According to the Prosecutor's Office, the investigating judge, in rejecting most of the measures requested, "did not consider the mafia evolution as demonstrated judicially in numerous investigative contexts, first of all the Infinito investigation", the maxi-operation against the ' ndrangheta in Lombardy.

"Ignoring this evolutionary process and relegating the mafia manifestation of permeation of the economic fabric to the presence or absence of violent activities - is one of the tough steps of the appeal - is worth a thirty-year relegation in judicial and investigative evolution".