Municipal councilor of Catania arrested for complicity in murder

A councilor of the Municipality of Palagonia was arrested by carabinieri for complicity in the murder of Francesco Calcagno, murdered in the town of the Catania plain on 23 August 2017. For the Dda the crime "was committed to facilitate a mafia group linked to the ' Stidda 'and would have links with the killing, on 5 August 2016, of the municipal councilor Marco Leonardi ".

The commissioner arrested is Antonino Ardizzone, with responsibility for Recreational Activities, Sports, Tourism and Entertainment.

According to the accusation "he would have acted as an intermediary between the principal and some prominent exponents of the Mafia gang of the 'Stidda' for the finding of the killer, to avenge the death of Marco Leonardo", killed by Calcagno.

The arrest was carried out by carabinieri of the investigative nucleus of the provincial command of Catania and of the company of Palagonia in execution of a precautionary custody order in prison issued by the Gip of Catania at the request of the district prosecutor.

For the killing of Calcagno, murdered with five gunshots in an agricultural fund, the police on 7 September 2017 arrested the alleged material author of the crime, Luigi Cassaro, 54.

For his identification, the release of a video was authorized in which the man with a gun was seen chasing the victim and then fleeing.

Calcagno, in October 2016 shot to death in a bar, Marco Leonardo, a city councilor elected on a civic list, also armed.

Later he turned himself in to the carabinieri, confessing to the murder, claiming to have acted in self-defense and speaking of a credit he boasted from the victim.

Also in that case the dynamics of the crime were reconstructed thanks to a video.