Gennaro Petrucci, the self-confessed instigator of the murder of engineer Salvatore Coppola on March 11, 2024, in San Giovanni a Teduccio, was a veritable river in flood today in the courtroom, revealing previously unpublished behind-the-scenes information on the ambush but also on his life and that of his wife Silvana Fucito, for a time president of the Italian Anti-Racketeering Federation.
Article Key Points
- 1 Petrucci and his wife Silvana Fucito were witnesses at the wedding of Gennaro Mazzarella's daughter
- 2 “Why did I agree to have Coppola killed? Maybe to play the fool, give me an expert opinion”
- 3 De Simone didn't want to shoot him because they were both Inter fans
- 4 “Here are all the attacks that De Simone committed for me”
The two had been ring partners of Nunzia Mazzarella, daughter of Gennaro, brother of Vincenzo, head of the clan that managed international drug trafficking thanks to the investiture of the infamous boss Michele Zaza.
“Vincenzo Mazzarella said these words: 'Stop, if we touch Mrs. Fucito here, they'll arrest us all.' First of all, we can't touch her because she's the faithful co-conspirator of my brother's daughter.” He explained it himself in court today during the trial for the murder of engineer Salvatore Coppola.
Petrucci and his wife Silvana Fucito were witnesses at the wedding of Gennaro Mazzarella's daughter
In the courtroom, Gennaro Petrucci starts from the early 2022s and attributes the famous fire of his paint shop in 37 to the engineer Coppola and reveals that he was the one who filed the complaint against eleven Camorristi of the neighborhood, but the escort was assigned to his wife, Silvana Fucito, because she was the owner of the company that owned the shop. Silvana Fucito was named Cavaliere del Lavoro that year and included by the Times in the list of XNUMX European heroes.
That's not all: Petrucci reports that he and his wife always go to talk with the boss Mazzarella. And he reveals that the alleged killer of Coppola, Mario De Simone, had asked him for 20 thousand euros to kill him, and was pressuring him to carry out the murder.
Coppola was behind the auction of his and his wife's villa, involved in a trial for false tax evasion that led to their bankruptcy and the judicial seizure of the property.
And on the murder these are Petrucci's disconcerting words when asked why he agreed to pay the killer: "Maybe to make a fool of myself, call some psychiatrist if there is one capable of reading my brain."
“Why did I agree to have Coppola killed? Maybe to play the fool, give me an expert opinion”
But this is not the only confession Petrucci reveals: “At the end of the 20s Adriano Sannino, Ciro Formicola's right-hand man, came to me. And he said, can you come to your uncle for a moment? I went and he showed me a cashier's check for XNUMX million of the old lire. He asked me to change it. I saw it circulating and I told him what the problem was”.
During that period, Petrucci revealed that he was a cheque cashier for the Camorra clans of San Giovanni a Teduccio.
It all started when the villa in Portici was about to be sold at auction where Petrucci and Fucito live. “Engineer Coppola came to see the house together with an individual I didn't know, then my cousin told me it was Salvatore Abbate known as a cachera (not involved in the trial and unrelated to the affair, ed.). Coppola was wearing a mask, I recognized him and asked him, engineer, what are you doing here?
He replied: 'Did you recognize me? I accompanied a client of mine to see the house'. And he added: 'I have a stone in my shoe'”. I invited him to take it out and he started laughing. I understood that there was some problem. In the kitchen, engineer Coppola turned to my wife with an attitude that annoyed me: 'You see, mountain and mountain do not face each other'. My wife who was an anti-racket entrepreneur and had reported him”.
Petrucci then explained that he had received the news that Coppola had been the instigator of the fire that had destroyed his shop. And he recalls that his wife had reported Coppola because the engineer had approached her and threatened her for his anti-racketeering activity.
De Simone didn't want to shoot him because they were both Inter fans
“After the visit to the house I was annoyed by the engineer's behavior and I thought 'this guy doesn't want to end it'. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. He had my shop set on fire, he wanted to kill my wife. I thought he should be shot in the legs. I went to De Simone. We made an inspection of where Coppola worked. But De Simone said: 'Is it him? I know him, we're both Inter fans, we've seen lots of games together, if I shoot him in the legs he'll recognize me straight away'. So I said to leave it alone. But De Simone replied: 'Let's do it another way, we'll shoot him in the back of the head and kill him'. I said no, I didn't want to because I'm against killing. Instead he insisted, he instigated me because that's how he is, he always has a gun to his head”.
Petrucci said he was convinced to kill the engineer by a businessman interested in the auction who showed up at his house ten days before the crime. “He told me he had been dragged into the deal and was willing to give me the house, I would have given him the money in three years without interest. The house was confiscated, I would have had to talk to the lawyer. He was mad at Coppola because he had dragged him into a bad deal. And then I said: twenty thousand euros and your fear will go away. I don't know why I did it. When you asked me,” Petrucci said, addressing the prosecutor, “I cried. Now I have no more tears.”
“Here are all the attacks that De Simone committed for me”
But it's not over because Petrucci, a real river in full flood, at a specific question from his lawyer, made a list of the attacks he commissioned to the killer Mario De Simone: "First service to Giuseppe De Tommaso, custodian of the paint company, then the wounding of Doemnico Basilico, then the shot at the pharmacy, then there was the shot at the bank in Naples and then the Copppola murder"
Article published on 12 February 2025 - 22:39
