Giuseppe Guttadauro
Giuseppe Guttadauro (Bagheria, August 18, 1948) is a Mafia boss and a high profile surgeon (he wears green scrubs) from the neighbourhood Roccella in Palermo.[4] He became the regent of the Brancaccio mandamento after the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the capomafie Giuseppe Graviano and Filippo Graviano.
Guttadauro was arrested in November 2002. His wife Gisella Greco and son were arrested on December 6, 2002 in a vast operation against the Mafia (Operation Ghiaccio), in which Guttadauro received another arrest warrant. His wife and son allegedly continued to run illicit business in his absence and acted as a conduit for his messages to other Mafia bosses on the outside.[5][6]
Police had bugged Guttadauro’s apartment and he was overheard discussing political appointments with the city's public health councillor Domenico Miceli, himself a doctor. (Miceli was sentenced to eight years for mafia association in December 2006)[7] Guttadauro learned that his home was being "bugged" from another doctor. The colleague alleged that he, in turn, had been tipped off by the President of the Sicilian region Salvatore Cuffaro.[8]
Before Guttadauro discovered the eavesdropping, he was recorded apparently describing how the mafia had funded Cuffaro's 2001 election campaign. According to a transcript, he told his brother-in-law that Cuffaro was handed packages of cash "in the least elegant, but most tangible way possible".[8]
The inquiry set up to trace the origin of leaks during an investigation into Guttadauro led to the questioning of Cuffaro by the Palermo prosecuting office,[9] and in September 2004 to an indictment charging Cuffaro with aiding and abetting the Mafia.[8] Cuffaro refused to resign when sent for trial, saying he would only do so if convicted. In the meantime he was re-elected as President in 2006 regional election defeating Rita Borsellino, the sister of the late judge Paolo Borsellino, killed by the Mafia in 1992.[10] On October 15, 2007, the prosecution requested eight years' imprisonment for Cuffaro for passing confidential information to the so-called moles in the Palermo Antimafia directorate.[11]
References
- ^ Template:It icon Attività di analisi, progettualità e strategia operativa, Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, 2° semestre 2003
- ^ Template:It icon Le indagini «Igres», in the 2006 Final Report of the Italian Antimafia Commission
- ^ Template:It icon Mafia, arrestato il boss Guttadauro, La Repubblica, July 18, 2006
- ^ Template:It icon Deposizione del collaboratore Giovanni Brusca, Tribunale di Palermo, December 12, 2000
- ^ Template:It icon Mafia, 44 arresti a Palermo, La Sicilia, December 6, 2002
- ^ Italian police arrest dozens in anti-Mafia swoop, ABC News, December 7, 2002
- ^ Patients die as Sicilian mafia buys into the hospital service, The Guardian, January 1, 2007
- ^ a b c Sicilian governor on mafia charge, The Guardian, September 3, 2004
- ^ Berlusconi's ally in Sicily investigated for Mafia links, The Independent, June 28, 2003
- ^ Sicily elects governor linked with Mafia, The Independent, May 30, 2006
- ^ Template:It icon Mafia, chiesti otto anni per Cuffaro, Corriere della Sera, October 15, 2007
External links
- Template:It icon Intercettazione ambientale: Boss Guttadauro parla di Cuffaro from La Mafia è Bianca on YouTube