Boss Matteo Messina Denaro regularly went shopping at the supermarket like a normal citizen.
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And it is likely that he handed them over to women, affiliates and supporters of his pizza. He left them among the shelves. I Carabinieri of the Ros who are conducting the complex investigation into what was the life of a normal citizen as a fugitive of Matteo Messina Denaro have had all his documents handed over to them images available of the video surveillance of the supermarket frequented by the boss.
Investigators hope to find the movements and above all discover all the supporters of the boss who went to the supermarket.
And in the meantime in the evening the Carabinieri of the ROS carried out another search a Campobello di Mazara, in the province of Trapani as part of the investigation into the supporters of the boss Matteo Messina Denaro. The house being searched is a dwelling used as a warehouse and is located in via San Giovanni.
Home of Andrea Bonafede's former in-laws searched
This is the home of the former in-laws of Andrew Bonafede, who has been in prison since Monday. The couple died years ago and the house has been uninhabited for some time, in via San Giovanni, a few hundred meters from the home of Giovanni Luppino and of the apartment where, until last June, Messina Denaro lived.
Andrea Bonafede does not speak before the investigating judge
He remains silent before the investigating judge Andrea Bonafede, the surveyor from Campobello di Mazara in prison for mafia association, the reserved man of honor who lent his identity to the boss Matteo Messina Denaro, bought the apartment where the mafia boss hid during the last period of his fugitive status and helped him buy the car he used for his travels.
“I found him in good shape, we are waiting for the conclusion of the investigations” says the surveyor's lawyer at the end of the hearing dedicated to the preliminary hearing. An evident change in defense strategy compared to the first phase of the investigation, when Bonafede, questioned by investigators after Monday's raid, had made half admissions.
Truths mixed with lies, say the investigators, inclined to believe that the godfather's most loyal follower admitted only what he could not deny: such as having given his identity card to Messina Denaro, having bought on his behalf, with 15 thousand euros received from the boss, the house in Vicolo San Vito where the mafia boss lived and having given him a hand in purchasing the Juliet.
As for the rest, the surveyor from Campobello told lies. He said, for example, that he had known the mafia boss since he was a boy, but that he had lost sight of him until a year ago and that he had met him, since January 2022, only on two occasions. On both occasions Messina Denaro had asked him for help: to get treatment and to find an apartment.
And Bonafede would have satisfied him by giving him the identity card and tax code used for cancer treatments and buying him a house. But the dates do not add up because investigators know that an Andrea Bonafede, certainly not the surveyor and therefore the mafia boss with the other's documents, underwent surgery at the hospital in Mazara del Vallo for colon cancer in December 2020.
This shows that the “borrowing” of identity dates back at least a year earlier than the surveyor claims. Time will tell if Bonafede will betray his friend and tell the story of the last two years, at least, of his time in hiding, or if he will continue to remain silent.
Meanwhile, investigations continue into the boss's house, into the hidden bunker found in the house of the brother of a convicted mafia man, Errico Risalvato, and on the apartment on Via San Giovanni, also in Campobello di Mazara, where the godfather allegedly lived before moving to his last hideout. The properties were searched thoroughly, also using georadar, which can locate hidden rooms or premises.
Risalvato's lawyers: it wasn't a bunker but a storage room
“We deny that the property was a refuge for Messina Denaro and that there was a bunker in the house. What was found was a storage room where the family's valuables were kept,” say lawyers Mattozzi and Stallone who are defending Risalvato. This morning, Messina Denaro's family home in Castelvetrano was also searched.
The Carabinieri searched the apartment and found, in addition to old photos of the mafia boss, a box with his old Ray Ban teardrop, a book on the mafia and a bottle of champagne. The godfather, taken to the prison in L'Aquila after his arrest, continues to renounce hearings in which he is accused: last week the one in Caltanissetta of the appeal trial for the mafia massacres of '92 and today the one before the investigating judge in the proceedings against the Agrigento and Trapani mafia.
His position was separated from that of the other defendants because he was absconding. With the boss locked up in prison, two more anti-mafia marches were organized in Campobello di Mazara and Castelvetrano, both concluding in Vicolo San Vito, in front of the hideout of the former super fugitive. Among the people, also the bishop of Mazara del Vallo, Monsignor Angel Giurdanella and the bishop emeritus monsignor Domenico Mogavero.
Article published on 25 January 2023 - 21:52
