“KARPANTHOS” INVESTIGATION
'Ndrangheta, pressure from his partner to silence the repentant. "You're selfish"
Danilo Monti's collaboration path stops at the first minutes. The role of Giuseppina Trovato, the "clash" over her daughter's future
Published on: 09/22/2023 – 16:47
by Pablo Petrasso

CATANZARO «And what should they do to me? I don't want to see anyone anymore, I don't want to have anything to do with anyone anymore, who have already ruined my life ." Danilo Monti expressed his intentions to his partner Giuseppina Trovato in February 2019. The man, in prison for the murder of the butcher Francesco Rosso , is the key figure in the "Karpanthos" investigation by the Catanzaro DDA into the infiltration of the 'Ndrangheta in the Municipality of Cerva. He is not a repentant but a "declarant": his path of collaboration with the anti-mafia magistrates was interrupted.
According to the investigators, that abrupt stop would have been favored by Monti's partner. The investigating judge Chiara Esposito speaks of " conditioning carried out by Giuseppina Trovato so that he would interrupt his path of collaboration with justice".

His partner "would not have allowed him to decide about his daughter's future"
Trovato, accused of external complicity in a mafia association, continued to frequent the other suspects after Monti's arrest for the Rosso crime. The woman turned to them " to guarantee the safety of her partner " and to convey important information. The meetings would also have been extended to " subjects of investigative interest in the province of Lecco, among which the figure of Vincenzo Marchio stands out ". It is she who attempts to reduce the level of her partner's collaboration with the justice system, reporting that that dialogue with the investigators referred only to "the murderand that protection for family members would be triggered when Monti Danilo decided to collaborate fully". Then a resolution that is a cliché in the repentances announced in 'Ndrangheta families. It is again the district judge who reports in summary that Trovato "would never have allowed" Monti "to collaborate with justice as he would not have allowed him to decide on his daughter's future ". «Pressure», evidently, was successful.

The accusation against Monti: «You are selfish»
The investigation - signed by prosecutors Veronica Calcagno and Debora Rizza and coordinated by prosecutor Nicola Gratteri and deputy Giancarlo Novelli - documents some key steps in the choice of Monti. In an interview on 6 February 2019, Giuseppina Trovato, "in the face of the fragility and humanity demonstrated by Danilo Monti who, crying, lamented the absence of his daughter and said he wanted to die ", "accused" him. This is because "if he had continued his collaboration with the justice system to the end ( and therefore had talked about something other than murder, ed. ), he would have behaved selfishly towards" his partner.. The choice to collaborate, the woman argues, "on the one hand would have allowed him to spend time with their daughter , on the other hand it would have limited the freedom of Giuseppina Trovato herself and many other people". That collaboration, for Monti's partner, " would still have represented a big risk ". An underlining that would demonstrate, once again, how Trovato is "fully aware of the criminal caliber of the subjects who would have been called into question following the statements made by his partner". It is, perhaps, after this dialogue that that "what should they do to me" linked to the desire to leave one's past behind,for Monti it vanishes together with the idea of ??embracing the path of collaboration with justice .

The first report: the planned murder in Lecco and the "baptism"
It is a return to that dark past that brought him - on 30 October 2018 - before investigators as a suspect for the murder of the butcher of Simeri Crichi . That day, Monti confesses to the crime and says he is willing to collaborate with justice . His words will lead to first and second degree convictions for the perpetrators and instigators.
The excerpts from that first report also reveal the names of the members of Cerva's 'ndrina , outline responsibilities in old murders and reconstruct alliances and criminal dynamics. Monti talks about the "proposal" to kill a rival in Lecco and recalls the day of his affiliation, 1 November 2014. « At my "baptism" of affiliation– he says – Santino Gigliotti, Mario Gigliotti, Michele Griffo and Giuseppe Rocca were present. These were the people who participated in the ritual giving me the first dowry. After the ritual we went to eat at Santino Gigliotti's house and afterwards Mario Gigliotti told Michele Griffo to go and inform Giovanni Sacco at Cerca that I had been affiliated." They are vivid memories of the day they "ruined his life". Without him having found the strength to try to redeem her.