Jewels, necklaces, bracelets and even large gemstones.
This is what was found inside the bunker discovered in the second hideout used by Matteo Messina Denaro in Campobello di Mazara, according to what we learn from qualified sources, the men of the GICO of the Guardia di Finanza and those of the ROS of the Carabinieri who carried out the search.
An expert appraisal will now be needed to determine the authenticity and value of the jewels and stones found. At this time, the same sources emphasize, no written evidence has yet been found.
Like in a thriller, the secret room was behind a wardrobe. Invisible, hidden by a sliding door covered with clothes. There was no bed, no furnishings; Matteo Messina Denaro had probably had it built to store the things he truly cared about, his treasure.
The Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza's GICO discovered her this morning, thanks to a confidential tip-off just 48 hours after the capture of the former Cosa Nostra Scarlet Pimpernel. Screening of the land registry data acquired by the Guardia di Finanza was also crucial.
A fully-fledged bunker, housed in a ground-floor apartment in Campobello di Mazara, the village where the boss spent at least the last year. It's less than a kilometer from the home chosen by the godfather of Castelvetrano for his final stay as a fugitive, and purchased by Andrea Bonafede, the surveyor who "lent" him his identity, in June 2022.
The first contact between the two, Bonafede himself said, occurred a year ago, and it was the boss who contacted him in town. In the bunker, there were boxes: some full of papers—now being examined by the Carabinieri ROS—others empty. Perhaps, upon learning of the boss's arrest, someone made off with the contents.
It will certainly be one of the topics prosecutors will bring up when they question him. Because so far, as Palermo Chief Prosecutor Maurizio De Lucia said, there has only been "a brief conversation lasting a few minutes."
"I explained to him that he is in the hands of the state," De Lucia emphasized, "and I told him he will have full medical care." And he "thanked." The secret room was created in the home of an old acquaintance of the DDA magistrates: Errico Risalvato, previously investigated and acquitted for mafia association, a native of Castelvetrano, brother of Giovanni Risalvato, who was sentenced to 14 years for mafia.
After serving his sentence he was released from prison and is now free. Two of the godfather's most faithful followers Errico and Giovanni who, intercepted by the investigators, never missed an opportunity to declare his unconditional love for the godfather.
"I've told him so many times!" he said, unaware he was being wiretapped, to another man of honor. "I'm going with him! I don't care! My son has everything he needs! My wife has her salary... and I'm of the opinion, Maurì, that one day as a lion is better than a hundred years as a sheep!"
But Messina Denaro—according to the wiretaps that reported Risalvato's words—declined the offer. "I thank you... and I know you do so with all your heart, but you can help me more from there than... you can't help me, you can help me from there," he replied to his most loyal follower.
While the Risalvatos are well-known figures in the law, Giovanni Luppino, the farmer who acted as the boss's driver and drove him to the Maddalena clinic, where they were both arrested on Monday, had no criminal record, prosecutors said. Tomorrow he will appear before the investigating judge to explain his ties to the mafia boss.
The judge will have to decide whether to validate the arrest and order the precautionary measure and evaluate whether the charges of aiding and abetting and procuring evasion of the sentence that the Prosecutor's Office is charging him with are well-founded.
Meanwhile, the list of supporters under investigation grows. In addition to Luppino, who was arrested red-handed, Andrea Bonafede, the surveyor from Campobello who lent his identity to the boss—Messina Denaro had cloned his ID card—and two doctors are also under investigation. One is from Trapani, Filippo Zerilli, head of oncology. He was the one who subjected Messina Denaro to the DNA test needed to prescribe him chemotherapy.
The other is Alfonso Tumbarello, a former doctor from Castelvetrano who treated him. Both are charged with aiding and abetting and procuring evasion of sentence. Tumbarello's position is more serious, as he knew the real Bonafede well, being his doctor.
How could he not have realized the strange similarity between his two clients? Meanwhile, the Castelvetrano boss, currently incarcerated under the 41-bis regime in L'Aquila prison, has already undergone medical examinations.
Nothing specific has been disclosed about his condition, even though he is reportedly seriously ill. What is certain is that health workers are examining tests and documents sent by doctors at the clinic where he was being treated, and a treatment strategy, including chemotherapy, will then be established.
According to reports, the administration will be carried out in a private space in the prison. The Italian Data Protection Authority has intervened precisely regarding the boss's condition, asking the media not to release details regarding his medical records. "Even in cases involving people who have committed horrific crimes," it writes, the release of such data "does not appear justified."
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