Vassallo Murder, The Wiretaps That Frame “The Team”

Vassallo murder, there are “reasons to believe that the murder of Angelo Vassallo was carried out to prevent him from revealing what he had learned about the involvement of individuals, identified by him, in a drug trafficking ring involving the port of Acciaroli, a landing place for dinghies that unloaded the drugs”.

The prosecutors of the Dda of Salerno in the new investigation into the murder of the mayor of Pollica-Acciaroli, Angelo Vassallo, which occurred 12 years ago, and who have notified, with these motivations, nine search warrants.

The wife of the former carabiniere Lazzaro Cioffi, investigated as part of the inquiry into the murder of Mayor Angelo Vassallo, did not accept that he alone, among his colleagues, risked being involved in the crime and, speaking with his sister, expressed his intention to reveal to the investigators all the names of the "squad".

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This is what is written in the search warrant against nine suspects, including the former Brigadier Cioffi himself, Lieutenant Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo, and the Carabiniere Louis Molar. In an environmental interception from April 2018, cited in the provision, the woman speaks with her sister Concetta about the investigations.

WOMAN – Um they did… they put it all together. They went and dug up everything that was there, everything. But then there was Cagnazzo. Eh! Now they also think that… they don't think if Lazzaro is telling the truth…

CONCETTA – And in the meantime only his name came out.

WOMAN – Did only his come out?

CONCETTA – uhm

WOMAN – Cagnazzo kept the house there.

CONCETTA – Did you tell us he was on the team?

WOMAN – Hey!

CONCETTA – Only his name came out!

WOMAN – Yes, yes! I'll go tell you the names. If that's the case, I'll speak up! I don't give a damn. Just my husband?!

CONCETTA – Okay, you talk, you say: 'But it wasn't just us'

WOMAN – Hey!

CONCETTA – Eh, eh..! 'And only my husband from the team is under investigation'.

Vassallo Murder, Cioffi's Wife Ready to Spill the beans

According to the Salerno DDA from this interception “we can deduce the woman's intention, if her husband had actually been involved in the investigations into the murder, to provide the investigative authorities with the names of all the carabinieri of the 'squad' who had been in Acciaroli at that time and to reveal herself – if her husband had not done so – their involvement in the facts which, at that time, seemed to be contested only to Cioffi”. 

“It seems clear that at the end of August 2010, Mayor Vassallo had begun a personal campaign to combat the phenomenon of drug dealing in Acciaroli and that, evidently not trusting the local Carabinieri, he had involved some units of the municipal police in this activity, to whom he had entrusted surveillance services on the small port to try to identify the dinghies that were carrying the drugs to the mainland – it is stated in the provision – and what was discovered had caused the administrator a strong sense of disappointment as well as strong fears for his safety”. During the searches ordered by the prosecutors, PCs, cell phones and documents were seized.

Vassallo Murder, the names of the suspects and their roles

With the murder of Angelo Vassallo, the investigators argue, the aim was “conceal and preserve a drug trafficking activity attributable to a person close to Camorra organizations, such as Raffale Maurelli and in which the Carabinieri Lazzaro Cioffi and Fabio Cagnazzo were actively involved and the Palladino family" that is, the brothers Domenico, Giovanni and Federico, entrepreneurs who also own a hotel.

The work is centred on two main strands: new investigation, which could lead to a sensational turning point. The first is linked to drug trafficking that revolved around the small port of Acciaroli, a hamlet of Pollica, where the dinghies with the drug arrived.

A traffic that the mayor had discovered also thanks to the stakeouts commissioned by the traffic police, since “he didn't trust” of the local carabinieri. All this caused in him “a strong sense of disappointment – ​​we read in the search warrant – presumably due to the involvement of people he would not have imagined could be involved”.

And in fact, according to the DDA of Salerno, not only was the drug trafficking “attributable to a person close to Camorra organizations”, now deceased, but in it “were actively involved” the carabinieri “Lazarus Cioffi and Fabio Cagnazzo” e “the Palladino family”.

Even though he had “strong fears for their safety”, Vassallo confided in the former chief prosecutor of Vallo della Lucania, Alfredo Greco, reserving the right to formalize the complaint to a carabiniere who was absolutely trusted by Greco himself. But he didn't have time because he was killed the evening before the meeting, on September 5, 2010, with nine gunshots while he was returning home by car.

According to the Salerno DDA, the murder was preceded by an inspection carried out by two people believed to be members of organised crime, namely Salvatore and Romolo Ridosso, and “from the entrepreneur Joseph Cyprian (all three of them) Scafati editor's note) and was followed by a diversionary activity, previously planned and guaranteed, carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo and Carabiniere Luigi Molaro”.

The nine suspects are the Carabinieri Colonel Fabio Cagnazzo, the Carabiniere Luigi Molaro, the former Brigadier Lazzaro Cioffi, Romolo and Salvatore Ridosso believed to be members of the Loreto Ridosso Camorra clan active in the Scafati area, the entrepreneur Giuseppe Cipriano, owner of a cinema in Scafati and, for a short period, also in Acciaroli (a seaside hamlet of the municipality of Pollica), and the brothers Domenico, Federico and Giovanni Palladino, entrepreneurs from Acciaroli who own a residence in the area, the latter investigated only for drugs and not for the murder. Cagnazzo and Molaro had already been investigated in previous years for the seizure of a plant video surveillance which was aiming for the port of Acciaroli, but their position had been archived.

 Vassallo Murder, the Cover-up

A diversion that would have also involved the other carabiniere Lazzaro Cioffi and that would have been planned, in fact, before the murder, which is why this is also contested to the members of the force, who would have known what fate Vassallo was facing.

The aim of the diversion of the investigation, which Cagnazzo had infiltrated without having any right to do so and without delegation from the prosecution, was to “direct investigative activities towards subjects unrelated to the crime”: the carabinieri are accused in particular of having acquired images from video surveillance systems to frame a man known in the world of drug dealing, Umberto Bruno Damiani, known as o' Brasileiro.

 Vassallo Murder, Brother: “A Breath of Fresh Air”

“A breath of fresh air after 12 years spent free-diving, like a diver coming out of the water”. This is how Massimo Vassallo, brother of the “fisherman” mayor of Pollica, describes the feeling he felt when he learned of the execution of a search warrant against 9 people as part of the investigation into the murder of his brother Angelo.

The Salerno Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Giuseppe Borrelli, has announced that the hypothesis that emerged from the investigations is that the "fisherman mayor" was killed to prevent him from reporting drug trafficking that he had discovered in the port of Acciaroli, a seaside hamlet of the municipality of Pollica and a location that, also and above all thanks to his work, has become one of the most popular in Cilento.

"It is the path that we have always identified - Massimo Vassallo recalls - and it was clear that there was no other way to go than drug trafficking and the involvement of people linked to the institutions. We are confident in the activity of Borrelli and the prosecutor Colamonici that we have met in these years and in recent months", concludes.

Vassallo Murder, Ingroia's Satisfaction

Satisfaction for the turnaround in the investigations was expressed by the former Palermo prosecutor and current lawyer Antonio Ingroia, who assists the brothers Dario and Massimo Vassallo. “Finally, after twelve years, a glimmer of light appears”He says.

"I can only express hope and satisfaction because we were losing hope. The Salerno Prosecutor's Office seems to fully validate the reconstruction that we had made regarding Cagnazzo's position that had been archived.

Faced with the enormity of the accusations, however, it seems to me that the action of the Prosecutor's Office was a bit timid and late. I say this with the utmost respect and esteem for my former colleagues whose activity I have always appreciated. But citizens expect greater courage from the judiciary".

Vassallo Murder, Legambiente, Mayor in Love with the Territory

 "Twelve years after the killing of Angelo Vassallo, the investigations seem to have taken the right direction. The judiciary will have to ascertain individuals, but Vassallo, as a Mayor in love with Pollica and the port of Acciaroli, could not remain silent in the face of the Camorra's attempt to transform the territory that he had redeveloped, transforming it into a quality tourist destination, into a drug dealing square.

Both the 'sensational red herrings' investigated by the Salerno DDA on the alleged involvement of a high-ranking officer of the Carabinieri are disconcerting. After so much darkness, we can finally see the light. Our thoughts are with Angelo's family who never gave up fighting for truth and justice". This is the comment of Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente, and of Mariateresa Imparato, president of Legambiente Campania.

Vassallo Murder, the Mayor of Pollica: “Good Turn in Investigation, There Are Facts to Clarify”

The breakthrough in the investigation into the murder of Angelo Vassallo, the “fisherman” mayor of Pollica killed on September 5, 2010, is “good news.” This was said by Stefano Pisani, current mayor of Pollica in his third consecutive term, who held the position of deputy mayor in the municipal council led by Angelo Vassallo when he was killed.

Pisani emphasizes that he wants to be “cautious in evaluations” and adds: “I am pleased to learn that work is continuing and that it will finally be possible to shed light on some facts that have always been the subject of reflection.

There are questions regarding these circumstances that have never found a concrete answer, there are facts that need to be explained. In this case there is a provision and there are people under investigation, it means that the magistrates have additional elements to use".

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