There is also the shadow of Cosa Nostra in the investigation into corruption in Liguria, the same one that led to the house arrest of the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti.
The charge for the head of cabinet of the President of the Liguria Region Matteo Cozzani – regional coordinator of the electoral campaign for the ‘Let’s change with Toti President’ List – is heavy under house arrest, which according to the prosecutor’s office would have facilitated the activity of Cosa Nostra, in particular the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district.
The investigation also included the twins Arturo Angelo Testa and Italo Maurizio Testa, representatives of the Riesi community of Genoa, recipients of the obligation to reside in the Municipality of Boltiere, in the province of Bergamo, where they live, accused of the crime of electoral corruption committed at in order to facilitate Cosa Nostra. Finally, Venanzio Maurici, a trade unionist, subject to the obligation to report to the judicial police, is accused of the same crime: electoral corruption, aggravated by the aim of facilitating the mafia, again the Cammarata clan.
In particular “Cozzani (who acted on behalf of Giovanni Toti) and the Testa brothers agreed with each other in order to channel the votes of the voters belonging to the Riesina Community of Genoa (at least 400 votes) and in any case Sicilians towards the list ‘Let’s change with Toti President ‘ and towards three specific candidates.”
Cozzani: “I wouldn’t want to find Dia in the office”
We need to go back to 2020, before the regional elections: while discussing the possible candidates, the availability of Arturo Angelo Testa, federal president of the “Riesini socio-cultural association in the world”, had emerged. At that time, according to the investigation, Cozzani already showed “a certain concern, evidently representing a possible contiguity of his interlocutors with mafia circles”. So much so that, he had said at one point, “I wouldn’t want to find Dia in the office”.
But then Testa was no longer included in the list: in his place, Anzalone. Also because Testa and his brother Italo Maurizio had already been protagonists of a controversial news story, going to Predappio and performing the Roman salute in front of a bust of Mussolini. An episode which also led to Italo Maurizio Testa’s resignation from the position of deputy mayor of Boltiere.
The twins, however, would have continued to maintain contacts with Cozzani “aimed at guaranteeing the electoral support of the ‘Riesini’ for three candidates on the Cambiamo con Toti Presidente list”. Including Anzalone, under investigation, who allegedly offered the twins room and board expenses in Genoa in the period between 10 and 19 September 2020.
“Cozzani told me ‘get some votes in Certosa and the next day I’ll make you hire two, three at the port… I promise you my word'” are the words that the two brothers are said to have uttered, according to the investigation documents, close to the regional elections, in particular after an electoral dinner.
And in fact the votes are arriving in Certosa: precise cross-checks carried out during the investigations demonstrated that the percentage of preferences of the chosen candidates was “far higher than that obtained by them in the other remaining electoral sections of the Municipality of Genoa”.
The story continues with interviews actually held by the “subjects reported by Cozzani at the request of the Testa twins”. But not only that: as the papers recall, “the electoral corruption carried out was aimed not only at guaranteeing the association of 4 or 5 people, but also at somehow ensuring a presence within the institutions and gaining stable accreditation as a ‘group’ capable of controlling the consensus of the Certosa neighbourhood, to guarantee the election of candidates who would then respond to them and who would serve the interests of the people of Riese, to create a credit which would then be collected”.
The trade unionist suspended by the CGIL
The CGIL trade unionist Venanzio Maurici also enters the investigation, defined as the “Genoese contact” of the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district. During the regional elections, to give his vote to the list Toti would have accepted the promise of a job in favor of his daughter’s partner. “The CGIL – underlines the union – is strongly concerned about what is emerging from the investigation by the prosecutor’s office which is involving the political leaders of the Ligurian Region at the highest levels, the port management system and some economic operators. The system of which we read in statement from the Prosecutor’s Office makes one’s wrists tremble due to the picture that emerges from the first stages of the investigation. Added to this already worrying picture is the presence and permeation of mafia organizations. One of the suspects appears to be a member of the CGIL pensioners as a precaution and in accordance with the Statute, the regional CGIL and national Spi regulatory centers immediately suspended the registration. It is important that the Judiciary goes to the end and clarifies the political and individual responsibilities and transparency on one of the most important productive assets of the country. Liguria”.
