The search continues for those who were part of the network protecting Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who died in September 2023 of cancer during his 30-year fugitive period. More than a year after his arrest on Jan. 16, 2023, three more arrests were made yesterday: architect Massimo Gentile and Mazara del Vallo Sicilian Hospital radiology technician Cosimo Leone ended up in handcuffs on charges of mafia association, while Leonardo Gulotta was charged with external complicity in mafia association. In the case of the architect, according to investigators between 2007 and 2017, "he would have surrendered his identity several times to the wanted mafia leader, thus allowing him to buy a Fiat 500 and a BMW motorcycle, take out insurance on the two vehicles, and carry out banking transactions", allowing him to live and move around as an ordinary citizen and with a seemingly regular ID. As for the radiologist, prosecutors accuse him of guaranteeing the fugitive boss in November 2020 that a CT scan of his chest and abdomen would be safely done, of giving him a confidential cell phone during his hospitalization at Mazara del Vallo hospital, in the days when the mafia boss was undergoing surgery for colon cancer, and of having the CD of the CT scan delivered to him after his discharge to show to the specialists who were treating him. Finally, Gullotta is accused of making his own telephone number available to Messina Denaro between 2007 and 2017 so that he could receive communications from the dealer of the Fiat 500 purchased under a false name and from the insurance agencies at which the policies for the car and motorcycle bought under Gentile's identity were taken out. Since the boss's capture, 14 people have ended up in handcuffs on charges of aiding the wanted mob boss, four of whom have already been convicted.
|