After the arrest of a mafia leader, they begin their investigations in the cells of the hard prison.
In penitentiary institutions, the collection of imperceptible details that serve to decipher the coded messages of the bosses behind bars has been taking place for twenty-five years: from the movement of the hands to the looks, up to the way of wearing a t-shirt.
And the Mobile Operational Group, a specialized department of the penitentiary police intended for the custody and movement of prisoners subject to the special regime of 41 bis, is currently dealing with 724 excellent prisoners.
From
Michele Zagaria
to
Totò Riina
, they have monitored 2,135 in total day and night so far: one of the last was
Matteo Messina Denaro
, for whom the GOM agents - thanks to their observations - have provided various elements to the judiciary in a few months.
"What happens inside the cells of 41 bis always projects outside, because criminal organizations need to maintain contact with the outside - explains
Augusto Zaccariello, 58 years old, director of the Gom
- This is why ours is a work of observation and meticulous analysis. Inmates are already subjected to listening to conversations or phone calls in prison and to checking correspondence: they are aware of this, the challenge is to be able to understand their way of transmitting information. of an encrypted language obviously neither written nor spoken, exclusively paraverbal".
From the type of greeting, between prisoners or with family members, to facial expressions or movements: everything passes under the eyes and examination of the GOM observers, who interpret the meanings.
"Through this type of investigation into signs and small attitudes we are also able to understand alliances between organizations or internal frictions", underlines the heads of the Gom.
Of the 724 inmates in 41 bis, only four are former political terrorists, the other 720 are top exponents of the mafia and have an average age between 45 and 50 years: numerically those belonging to the Camorra prevail, followed by those of Cosa Nostra, ' ndrangheta and stidda.
In their social moments they can divide into isolated groups of up to four people.
"The criminals of the underworld are in solidarity with each other and unlike the former terrorists, who openly demonstrate their aversion to the State, from the clans in prison there is an apparent respect for the institutions, often aimed at not losing any benefits they could enjoy, one of their main objectives."
Since 1983 in Poggioreale, in his long career as an agent in front of those cells, Zaccariello has engraved in his mind the gestures and movements of the great mafia leaders.
And he remembers: "what remains unforgettable for me are their looks. After all, the bosses of the domes limited themselves only to good morning and good evening".
But like many state servants, even among the agents of the Mobile Operational Group there are those who have paid the consequences of their commitment.
"From Pasquale Campanello to Michele Gaglione and unfortunately many other colleagues killed, several colleagues have become symbolic targets for criminal organizations. Perhaps we are the agents who work most in the shadows."
A task where the eye of the agents goes beyond vigilance, to reveal projects and plots of the domes, hidden in the coded language of the mafiosi's body.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA