VIESTE – «The situation has become unsustainable: Gianluigi Troiano is not extradited for unknown reasons from Spain, where he was captured at the end of January; nor was it possible for technical reasons to set up the videoconference with the assize court of Foggia where he is being tried for murder. Troiano rightly complains that he cannot defend himself, that he cannot speak to me who defends him. The trial has been stalled since February; the interrogation of Justice collaborator Antonio Quitadamo postponed for the third time; the next hearing will be held on September 20th.” Thus the lawyer Salvatore Vescera after the new postponement of the trial of Gianluigi Troiano, 31 years old, from Vieste and Angelo Bonsanto, 35 years old, from Lesina (defended by the lawyer Luigi Marinelli), accused of complicity in the murder aggravated by the mafia of Omar Trotta , the young restaurateur from Vieste murdered by gunshots in his restaurant on 27 July 2017 in the mafia war, in particular one of the most violent and bloody in the Gargano area, between the Raduano clan and the rivals of the Perna/Iannoli group which has been ongoing since January 2015 in the summer of 2022 it counted 19 bloody incidents with 10 deaths, 1 white wolf, and numerous failed ambushes.
The two defendants are free on this charge, but detained for other crimes: both say they are innocent. According to the accusation based on the revelations of some repentants with testimonies collected by the DDA, Bonsanto is one of the two killers who broke into the restaurant, shooting Trotta (under the eyes of his wife and little son) and wounding his friend Tommaso Tomaiuolo; Troiano would have verified the presence of the victim in the room, and alerted the hitmen, giving them the green light.
For this murder, already convicted in the first degree in the abbreviated “Omnia nostra” trial, Raduano was given a life sentence as the instigator because he ordered the death of his fellow villager to avenge the murder of his brother-in-law Gianpiero Vescera, killed in September 2016; Antonio Quitadamo, from Mattinata, repentant, who was also inflicted 12 years and 4 months for mafia and other crimes; the Vieste native Danilo Pietro Della Malva, also repentant, at 11 years old also for mafia and other charges.
Troiano, believed to be the right-hand man of the former Vieste boss Marco Raduano who repented last March 20, was captured in Granada in Spain on January 31, 2024 after more than two years on the run; he escaped on 11 December 2021 from the Campomarino apartment where he was under house arrest and was serving a 9-year sentence for drug trafficking.
At yesterday’s hearing, the repentant Antonio Quitadamo was supposed to be questioned, but difficulties in the video connection with Spain caused the postponement. Quitadamo’s interrogation was missed on February 2nd because Troiano had been arrested 48 hours earlier and therefore had the right to be present at the trial; both March 22nd due to problems in the video connection with Spain; he returns to court on September 20.
