Two mysterious thefts, thousands of identity cards disappeared.
It is the last chapter of the investigation into the fugitive of boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
The prosecutors of Palermo are ascertaining whether the five counterfeit identity cards, made out to as many living and uncensored residents of Campobello di Mazara, found in the hideout in vicolo San Vito where the mafia boss was hiding, belong to the batch of identification documents that disappeared from the Municipality of Trapani in 2015 and 2018. The two episodes, hitherto considered to be common crimes, could now take on a totally different connotation.
The first theft took place in the municipal delegation of Borgo Madonna, in via Giuseppe Polizzi.
The thieves went into action at night by forcing the front door of the building and taking away blank identity cards and a few thousand euros.
Three years later, after turning off the electricity to an entire block, criminals entered the peripheral offices of Largo San Francesco di Paola and stole the safe with a thousand identification documents and money.
The perpetrators of the second theft, two thugs of small criminal caliber, were arrested some time later, but only part of the loot was recovered.
The investigators, who are verifying whether other similar thefts have been committed in Sicily, are trying to ascertain whether the documents discovered in the hideout are part of the booty never found.
What is certain is that the stolen cards were all blank.
According to the investigators, they would then have been filled in with the personal details of the 5 Campobellesi.
The photo of Messina Denaro would also have been added to the document - in the hideout there were several passport photos - and the stamp of the Municipality of Campobello di Mazara.
A complex procedure on which the prosecutors try to shed light, given that the boss could hardly have carried out without the complicity of others.
The investigators also want to ascertain whether the five aliases to which the documents found in the hideout were registered were accomplices of the mafia boss and had "lent" his identity.
Like Andrea Bonafede, the surveyor of Campobello in prison on charges of mafia association.
For the investigating judge he would be a reserved man of honor, a loyalist in whom the mafia boss had full confidence so much as to have involved him in his fugitive.
Meanwhile, after the testimonies of those who said they met the boss Matteo Messina Denaro while on the run, ignoring his true identity, it is the turn of the false reports.
Dozens of people, mythomaniacs say the investigators, are contacting the prosecutor's office reporting phantom acquaintances with the mafia boss or having received explosive revelations from him.
Stories that would have been largely invented unlike those of the citizens - from the dealer who sold him the car, to the mover who moved the furniture from one den to another, to the women who would have frequented him, to the patients of the clinic where he was arrested - often induced to contact the investigators to prevent his moves.
(HANDLE).
