https://www.corrieredellacalabria.i...lli-e-toto-riina-per-sistemare-le-faide/the historical testimony
Brusca, the 'ndrangheta and the “comparato” between Piromalli and Totò Riina «to settle the feuds»
The old stories of the former district boss of San Giuseppe Jato, architect of the Capaci massacre and witness of the strategic alliance between the two mafias
Published: 09/06/2025 – 6:55
LAMEZIA TERME For decades Cosa Nostra and the 'ndrangheta have cultivated a very close relationship based on shared visions and exchanges of favors, from arms trafficking to drug trafficking, to the point of cementing what at a certain point had become the common goal to pursue: to influence and bend the very life of the State. The investigators of the Reggio Calabria Anti-Mafia District are convinced of this, there are investigations and sentences - such as, for example, the "Crimine" trial - to confirm it, but also the most recent investigation into the "'Ndrangheta stragista".
“The Saint”
The pyramid structure, a group of families to dominate the entire national territory and beyond, up to the existence of a structure superior to the "Province" or "La Santa", composed of very few top figures capable of managing confidential relationships and relations, even with public and institutional apparatuses, as well as Freemasons and members of deviant secret services.
In short, a historical context in which it is still possible to glimpse figures who are still relevant today such as Giovanni Brusca . The "executioner of Capaci", the Cosa Nostra mafia boss who activated the remote control that triggered the explosion on May 23, 1992 in which Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and the escort agents died, has in fact returned free after having served, in total, 25 years in prison, of which the last 4 on probation.
The refuge in Calabria
The name of the boss of San Giuseppe Jato is not new in those episodes that have constituted the historical basis of the Calabrian 'ndrangheta, quite the opposite. It was the same collaborator of justice, among the many statements made, who spoke of the close connection between the Calabrian and Sicilian mafia. When, for example, he spoke of Antonio Salamone, the former head of the San Giuseppe Jato district who, according to Brusca «had found refuge in Calabria and who, with the help of exponents or subjects close to the 'ndrangheta, had attempted to "fix" even some trials in the Supreme Court».
It was again Brusca who spoke of the relationships that had existed since the 1970s between Cosa Nostra and the 'ndrangheta, specifying that he had learned «of the existence of a "comparato" between Piromalli and Riina, who had "got involved in settling the feuds"». A circumstance that the Sicilian repentant says he learned «from his father, as well as from Riina himself and his brother-in-law Bagarella».
Hospitality in Cefalù, Riina and Bagarella
Like other informants, Brusca confirms another episode, that of the hospitality guaranteed at the “Euromare” village, «managed by Tullio Cannella, a front man for the Gravianos, to some Calabrians who had come into conflict with other individuals». Brusca had also specified that, after 1992, the relations between the Sicilians and the Calabrians were handled by Totò Riina himself and, after January 1993, that is, after his capture, those who were in charge of them would have been mostly «Bagarella and Messina Denaro, although we cannot exclude that they were also entertained by Giuseppe Graviano».
The massacres and the Calabrians in Formello
In relation to the sharing of the massacre strategy between Cosa Nostra and the 'ndrangheta, Giovanni Brusca himself had also said that, during a meeting with Giuseppe Graviano in Misilmeri, before the arrest of the accused, «he had been asked to contact, through Leonardo Vitale, some Calabrians in Formello, near Rome, so that they would commit dynamite attacks against monuments and thus continue the massacre strategy». Brusca said that this Vitale «had told him about a Calabrian individual, Pino Franco or Franco Pino from Cosenza, who he had met in prison and who lived in Formello, that the Calabrians had “made themselves available”, but immediately afterwards Bagarella was arrested and therefore the plan ran aground». ( g.curcio@corrierecal.it )
