Emanuele Bonafede remains in prison, believed to be one of the main abettors of Matteo Messina Denaro, cousin of the surveyor Andrea Bonafede, the man who lent his identity to the former fugitive. Emanuele Bonafede, convicted last January of aggravated aiding and abetting and failure to comply with the six year and eight month sentence, asked the Palermo Review Court to replace precautionary custody in prison with house arrest. Request rejected by the judges.
The suspect ended up in jail together with his wife Lorena Lanceri, the woman who looked after the mafia boss for months, also managing his network of pizzini and who was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months for mafia association. Emanuele Bonafede and Lorena Lanceri hosted Matteo Messina Denaro, during his time as a fugitive, for lunch and dinner in their home in Campobello di Mazara. “Thus allowing him – the investigators said – not only to spend many hours in complete tranquility and in their company in a domestic – family context but, also and above all, to meet with numerous people and last but not least, to enter and exit their home carrying out accurate checks to reduce the risk of being spotted by the police”.
In addition to preparing food for the wanted mafia boss, in fact, the couple carried out close surveillance on the area: the videos from the surveillance cameras of some shops recorded the two while, after having made sure that there were no police or carabinieri on the street, they gave the the green light for their guest to leave the house undisturbed. A relationship of absolute loyalty bound the couple to the boss who reciprocated with valuable gifts: in 2017, the mafia boss acted as godfather at the confirmation and gave a Rolex worth 6300 euros to the Bonafede’s son. The expense was then promptly noted by Messina Denaro in a pizzino. The investigations also clearly revealed that Lanceri and the boss were having a relationship. The investigators found a letter signed Diletta, code name Lanceri according to the prosecutors, in which the woman, who would have been close to the boss throughout his illness, declared her love for Messina Denaro. The woman also sorted the correspondence between the godfather and another of her lovers Laura Bonafede, also in prison.
