EXCHANGE VOTE IN ANZIO, DE ANGELIS DEFENDS HIMSELF

Political-mafia exchange vote in Anzio: former mayor Candido De Angelis questioned. He spoke to the judges for hours

The interrogation of the former mayor of Anzio, Candido De Angelis, accused by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office of political-mafia exchange votes, began in the early afternoon and ended after several hours. He was questioned by the deputy prosecutors of the Public Prosecutor’s Office/DDA of Rome Giovanni Musarò and Eleonora Fini.

Assisted by his lawyer Pierpaolo Dell’Anno, De Angelis wanted to answer all the questions. According to the trusted lawyer, reached by reporters, De Angelis responded to everything “intending to clarify his position” and placing “trust in the judiciary”.

Three other suspects, including the former councilor Gualtiero Di Carlo, summoned last April 13 to the Prosecutor’s Office in Rome by the deputy prosecutor of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, Giovanni Musarò, had exercised the right not to answer. A fourth suspect, however, had answered the public prosecutor’s questions, explaining his position regarding some wiretaps.

As has been known since October 2022, in fact, the deputy prosecutors of the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office have also investigated the former mayor of the Municipality of Anzio which, together with the municipality of Nettuno, is still under commissionership due to infiltration by the ‘Ndrangheta. According to the investigators’ hypotheses, the political exponents would have had relations with some of those involved in the maxi operation of the District Anti-Mafia and Carabinieri Directorate of Rome called “Triton”. Among them, precisely, the former centre-right mayor and also the former Councilor for Public Works Giuseppe Ranucci (Forza Italia).

Indirect interceptions mentioning the mayor had already emerged in the past. The investigation for political-mafia exchange vote would have seen De Angelis signed up three years ago.

After the notice of conclusion of investigations for 66 suspects in the “Tritone” operationthe Court of Appeal of Rome, last March, confirmed the first degree sentence for the defendants in the Tritone trial who had chosen the alternative rite, i.e. the abbreviated one.

Judged with the abbreviated trial, the Gup Saulino sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment, among others, Bruno Gallace, Vincenzo Italiano, Gregorio Spanò and Fabrizio Schinzari and sent another thirty defendants to trial, including Giacomo Madaffari, who chose the ordinary trial and who will be judged at the Court of Velletri. To everyone and 25 defendants who opted for the abbreviated trial were sentenced to a total of 260 years in prison. Among the sentences there were also some acquittals for some of the accused.

The mafia association is therefore confirmed: between Anzio and Nettuno an autonomous ‘ndrangheta local had been set up and recognized by the Calabrian “mother”. A sentence now also certified by the judges of the Court of Appeal. A truly autonomous cell, managed by Gallace, Perronace, Tedesco and Madaffari, which moved along the southern Capitoline coast a few steps from the province of Latina. The ordinary trial for the other defendants, however, is continuing at the Court of Velletri.

Various crimes were contested in various capacities: mafia association, association aimed at international trafficking of narcotic substances aggravated by the mafia method, sale and detention for the purposes of dealing, aggravated extortion and illegal possession of a firearm, fictitious registration of goods and organized activities for the illicit trafficking of waste aggravated by the method mafia.