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CRIME

Mafia boss shot dead in Sicilian street

Killers gunned down a Mafia boss in Sicily on Monday as the Cosa Nostra flexed its muscles on the eve of the 25th anniversary of one of its most notorious murders.

Published: 22 May 2017 17:07 CEST
Mafia boss shot dead in Sicilian street
Police work on the street where the killing took place. Photo: Alessandro Fucarini/AFP

Giuseppe Dainotti, 67, was shot in the head as he cycled along a street in Palermo, almost 25 years to the day since anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone was blown up in an explosion on a motorway on the Italian island.

READ MORE: How the brutal murder of an anti-mafia hero altered Sicily

Photographs of the crime scene evoked decades of violence in the Sicilian capital, showing Dainotti's body covered by a sheet, only his shoes on show, and the white bicycle he was riding lying where it fell.

Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said the slaying was a warning to the state that Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”) may have been laying low, but was far from beaten.

“When some people claim the Mafia no longer exists or has been destroyed, something always happens to confirm it is still there,” he said.

“When necessary, it shoots again, in a clear and symbolic way,” he said.

Falcone's murder in May 1992 and that of fellow magistrate Paolo Borsellino in a separate bombing in July the same year sparked a vast crackdown against the Mafia which landed many of its key figures behind bars.

The once-powerful Sicilian Mafia has largely been surpassed in recent years by the notoriously ruthless 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Naples-based Camorra.

READ ALSO: One of Italy's largest migrant centres was mafia-run, say police

The last high-profile murder saw a lawyer beaten to death by members of the organised crime group in 2010.

Witnesses who called the police after hearing the gunshots said they thought Dainotti, who was released from prison in 2014 after serving time for murder, was executed by two killers who pulled up alongside him on scooter.

The slain gangster was believed to be close friends with Salvatore Cancemi, a high-ranking Mafia boss involved in the preparations and executions of the murders of Falcone and Borsellino.

In 1993 he turned himself in and became a police collaborator – describing among other things how feared boss of bosses Toto Riina ordered French Champagne to celebrate Falcone's death – and died in hiding in 2011.

OPINION: 'Italian judges are right to remove children from mafia families'OPINION: 'Italian judges are right to remove children from mafia families'
Photo: atlanka/Depositphotos

POLITICS

Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

The president of Italy's northwest Liguria region and the ex-head of Genoa's port were among 10 arrested on Tuesday in a sweeping anti-corruption investigation which also targeted officials for alleged mafia ties.

Published: 7 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Italy's Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Liguria President Giovanni Toti, a right-wing former MEP who was close to late prime minister Silvio Berlusconi but is no longer party aligned, was placed under house arrest, Genoa prosecutors said in a statement.

The 55-year-old is accused of having accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto Spinelli, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included seeking to privatise a public beach and speeding up the renewal for 30 years of the lease of a Genoa port terminal to a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

A total of 10 people were targeted in the probe, also including Paolo Emilio Signorini, who stepped down last year as head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in Italy. He was being held in jail on Tuesday.

He is accused of having accepted from Aldo Spinelli benefits including cash, 22 stays in a luxury hotel in Monte Carlo – complete with casino chips, massages and beauty treatments – and luxury items including a 7,200-euro Cartier bracelet.

The ex-port boss, who went on to lead energy group Iren, was also promised a 300,000-euro-a-year job when his tenure expires, prosecutors said.

In return, Signorini was said to have granted Aldo Spinelli favours including also working to speed up the renewal of the family’s port concession.

The Spinellis are themselves accused of corruption, with Aldo – an ex-president of the Genoa and Livorno football clubs – placed under house arrest and his son Roberto temporarily banned from conducting business dealings.

In a separate strand of the investigation, Toti’s chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, was placed under house arrest accused of “electoral corruption” which facilitated the activities of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra Mafia.

As regional coordinator during local elections in 2020, he was accused of promising jobs and public housing in return for the votes of at least 400 Sicilian residents of Genoa.

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