Catania – The explosion occurred inside the Cioccolato & Caffè bar in Viale Ruggero di Lauria, on the Catania seafront. It was the morning of April 2nd when a bomb and the subsequent fire completely destroyed the commercial activity, also damaging the building undergoing renovation and the external scaffolding. A story with too many question marks but which is now enriched by a fundamental chapter: the arrest of the owner of Cioccolato & Caffè Alessandro Leone. However, the investigation does not only concern the 42-year-old who was seriously injured following the explosion and who justified himself by explaining that he slipped while trying to put out the flames. Together with him, a 40-year-old ended up in prison while a 39-year-old accused of aiding and abetting was ordered to stay in the municipality of residence.
The police Flying Squad’s investigation immediately focused on the businessman and his injury. At first Leone allegedly refused treatment from the ambulance staff. Shortly afterwards, aboard his own car, he decided to reach the Garibaldi-Nesima hospital and finally Cannizzaro. Here he was admitted to intensive care and intubated as part of a fairly complex clinical picture with burns on 15 percent of his body and serious lung problems. The file, opened with the hypothesis of arson but initially without suspects, was enriched by video acquisitions from some surveillance cameras. In this way the investigators discovered that Leone, before the explosion on the seafront, bought petrol in a petrol station near his home and that, immediately afterwards, he met the 40-year-old with whom he went to the bar . At number 131, according to the accusations, the two set off homemade Molotov cocktails made from glass bottles.
A clumsy project that injured the entrepreneur and his alleged accomplice. Whose presence in the area was ascertained when the emergency room of the San Marco hospital received notification of a patient with wounds compatible with the explosion of a bomb. Further clues are those recovered in Leone’s car. Inside the officers found two funnels, a roll of drying paper, fragments of latex gloves, the receipt from the petrol station and a fabric detergent. Finally, the role of the 39-year-old janitor who, according to what MeridioNews understands, has family ties with prominent figures of the Cappello clan. The man, who was not present at the seafront, apparently entered the scene during Leone’s stay in hospital. Thanks to his role as a cleaner in the hospital, he would have warned the entrepreneur about the presence of some bugs that had been placed in the room where the 42-year-old was hospitalized.
