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CRIME

Ambulance driver suspected of killing patients to make money from their funerals

Police in Sicily have arrested an ambulance driver suspected of killing at least three patients in order to make money from their funerals.

Published: 21 December 2017 16:54 CET
Ambulance driver suspected of killing patients to make money from their funerals
File photo of a police car outside a Milan hospital. Photo: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP

The deaths took place while terminally ill patients were being driven to their family homes from hospital in the Sicilian town of Biancavilla.

The scheme had reportedly been going on since 2012, and the 'Ambulance of death' operation, as it was named by investigators, has looked at over 50 deaths in the area to establish whether any could have been homicides.

Of these, 12 were considered “particularly meaningful” to the operation, the Catania deputy prosecutor told a press conference, but only three were presented to the investigating magistrate as evidence.

The magistrate issued an arrest order for the 42-year-old driver, who is suspected of voluntary homicide aggravated by the alleged mafia involvement.

READ ALSO: Italian firemen accused of starting fires for bonuses

Catania's public prosecutor opened the investigation after an informant gave them details about the scheme and alleged local mafia groups' involvement. He had previously spoken about the case on Italian TV show Le Iene.

According to Italy's Rai News, the informant said that the driver injected air into the patients' blood using a needle, and that they died of embolism. He then allegedly took advantage of the family's grief to recommend a funeral company which paid him €300 for each job it got through his recommendation.

READ ALSO: Five ways to fight the mafia

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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