'Ndrangheta: the former mayor of Isola Capo Rizzuto, Gianluca Bruno, on trial for external competition Jan.!9,2024

Gianluca Bruno , the former mayor of Isola Capo Rizzuto , has ended up on trial , involved in the second investigation by the DDA into the alleged interference of the Arena gang of Isola di Capo Rizzuto in the management of the then Sant'Anna Center for asylum seekers . This is what the Catanzaro preliminary hearing judge decided yesterday and, accepting the request of prosecutor Pasquale Mandolfino, the 42-year-old was sent to trial. The trial for him will begin on May 10th in front of the Court of Crotone.

In recent weeks, the 44-year-old Leonardo Sacco, former governor of the Misericordia di Isola, and Carmelo Giordano, the 56-year-old former employee of the Prefecture of Crotone, had already been sent to trial, ending up at the center of the same proceeding in which Bruno is accused. The former mayor must answer for external complicity in a mafia association. For the DDA he would have favored the Arenas by acting as a "link" between the Municipality of Isola and the clan to the point of supporting the interests of the 'ndrina.
The investigative activity arose from the Jonny operation which in 2017 revealed the alleged "long arm" of the Arena and the island gangs on the business linked to the reception of refugees.