PALERMO #– He has a dark suit, with waistcoat, clutch bag and mother-of-pearl tie, she has a low-cut white dress made with lace fabric and a bouquet of red roses. # The #golden #couple of the Palermo mafia families, Tommaso Lo Presti, known as “the big one”, to distinguish him from the homonymous one called “the long one”, and his wife Teresa Marino, celebrated the #anniversary in style with friends and family of 25 years of marriage on April 15th. # The #couple – he was recently released from prison after years of detention for mafia and extortion, she was also convicted of mafia – chose a symbolic place for the religious ceremony in which to renew the promise of love, the #church of San Domenico, which is located in one of the most beautiful squares in Palermo and which is in the heart of the mafia district of which Lo Presti was at the top.
In the complex in which the #church is located there is also the pantheon of illustrious Sicilians, from Giuseppe Pitrè to Giacomo Serpotta, in which also stands the monumental tomb which has welcomed the remains of Giovanni #Falcone since 2015. # The mafiosi were then welcomed by the friars, who manage the complex, to celebrate the blessing of the silver wedding. # Father Sergio Catalano, friar prior of the #church, claims to have learned who the elegant #couple was only by reading the news from information sites that published the news a few days after the ceremony.
“The checks are not up to us #– he adds -, there are institutional bodies that have to do it”. # But the #couple from the Portanuova clan, he is under special surveillance and must return home by a certain time, could easily have the ceremony celebrated anywhere. # The evaluation of the opportunity to host two mafiosi of this caliber in the complex where the remains of the magistrate killed by the mafia are located would be up to those who have responsibility for those places.
Lo Presti also left an offering at the #church which Father Catalano says “will serve to do good to those in need”. # After the ceremony in San Domenico the #couple celebrated, within the time limits allowed to the special guard, in a villa also enlivened by the songs of two well-known neo-melodic artists. # After the arrest of Lo Presti, 48 years old, in the Iago operation in 2014, investigators discovered the role of his wife which the judge who sentenced her described thus: “Teresa Marino during the period of her house arrest (in conjunction with her husband’s prison), received at her home all the prominent exponents of the Porta Nuova mafia district and gave them her own and her husband’s instructions and directives, sharing their criminal strategies. # Furthermore, the mafia associates of the organization also turned to the woman to resolve issues and tensions within the association”.
