Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
Forty years of mysteries, silences and unresolved questions. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Caltanissetta is reopening an investigation into one of the darkest chapters in Italian history: the 1992 Mafia massacres, the isolation of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and the alleged cover-ups that surrounded the investigation into the via D’Amelio bombing. Six people are now under investigation, including the former police chief Gianni De Gennaro and the state’s witness Totuccio Contorno, known in Cosa Nostra circles by the nickname “Coriolano della Floresta”.
At the heart of the investigation are the links between De Gennaro, Contorno and Arnaldo La Barbera, the former head of Palermo’s Flying Squad, who is considered a central figure in the cover-up of the via D’Amelio bombing through the fabrication of the false state’s witness Vincenzo Scarantino.
The case dates back to 1989, when Contorno was arrested in Sicily along with his cousin Gaetano Grado. Nearly 40 years on, the episode still raises many questions. In the following years, as Falcone and Borsellino pursued their judicial battles, a series of disturbing events unfolded: from the failed Addaura attack to the letters from the so-called “Palermo raven”, used to undermine the magistrates’ work. Among these were references to Contorno’s return to Sicily.
The Caltanissetta investigation now aims to clarify what happened regarding classified documents. According to investigators, after searches were carried out in premises linked to the secret services in the hunt for Borsellino’s red diary, some documents were allegedly concealed or removed. Part of the material, recovered by the Carabinieri’s Ros unit, is said to include judicial documents and press articles about Contorno’s arrest in 1989. Other documents are believed to have been destroyed because they were deemed “sensitive”.
Investigators are also exploring the possibility of a leak in the inquiry, which may have allowed some of the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s moves to be anticipated. Among those involved is Donatella Peruzzi, who worked in intelligence, for the alleged concealment of documents.
Another focus is on wiretapped conversations involving De Gennaro, in which he reportedly expressed concern after learning of the searches linked to the hunt for the red diary.
