Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
CALTANISSETTA / NEWS & CRIME – New, sensational developments in the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Caltanissetta investigation into the mysteries and cover-ups surrounding the 1992 Mafia massacres. Six people are under investigation for alleged cover-up; among them are the former police chief and former head of the intelligence services Gianni De Gennaro — now heading Eurolink, the general contractor tasked with building the Strait of Messina Bridge — and the cooperating witness Salvatore “Totuccio” Contorno, known in Cosa Nostra circles by the nickname “Coriolano della Floresta”.
The inquiry, coordinated by the Nisseno prosecutor Salvatore De Luca together with the massacres team, brings to light the relationships and connections dating back to the late 1980s, when the Caltanissetta judicial office was led by Giovanni Tinebra and the Palermo Flying Squad by Arnaldo La Barbera, a central figure in the fabrication of the false informant Vincenzo Scarantino after the via D’Amelio massacre.
Wiretaps, contacts with Contorno and the “mole” in the investigation
According to the investigators’ reconstruction, the turning point in the inquiry came about two years ago: after learning of the searches ordered by the Nisseno Public Prosecutor’s Office against Arnaldo La Barbera’s relatives and in the intelligence offices as part of the search for Paolo Borsellino’s red diary, De Gennaro — unaware he was being wiretapped — allegedly took steps to reconstruct and conceal the events of those years.
Through Massimo Carnicelli and Francesco Pacetto, the former police chief is said to have managed to track down Totuccio Contorno — who survived a 1994 attack in Formello, Lazio — in an attempt to prevent the former informant from telling the Nisseno magistrates what had happened between 1986 and 26 May 1989, the date of his mysterious arrest in Sicily along with his cousin Gaetano Grado by La Barbera himself. Investigators also suspect that, via a “mole”, De Gennaro tried to anticipate the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s moves during the checks on him.
The hidden documents in the intelligence services and the link with the “Palermo raven”
A key role in the affair is also said to have been played by Donatella Peruzzi, who worked in the intelligence apparatus and is accused of hiding and further concealing classified documentation in the wake of the searches ordered by Caltanissetta for the red diary. Some of those files — later recovered by the Carabinieri’s ROS after being stolen by unknown individuals — contained judicial documents and press reviews relating precisely to Contorno’s 1989 arrest, while other documents are believed to have been destroyed by those under investigation because they were deemed “sensitive”.
The investigative picture thus reconnects the threads of a season of poison that preceded the Capaci massacre (23 May 1992) and the via D’Amelio massacre (19 July 1992):
- The delegitimisation of Falcone: in the three years following Contorno’s arrest, the failed Addaura attack and the season of anonymous letters from the “Palermo raven” took place. These letters, written by several hands, referred to the return to Sicily of “Coriolano della Floresta” to discredit Giovanni Falcone’s work and led to the trial — later ending in acquittal — of judge Alberto Di Pisa.
- The investigative front: after the recent seizures carried out in Rome, the Caltanissetta magistrates now aim to precisely reconstruct what happened in the last three years, cross-referencing the results of De Gennaro’s hearings with Totuccio Contorno’s testimony on the tensions within the investigative apparatus of the late 1980s.
