Mafia in Barrafranca, the former mayor under investigation for an exchange vote with the boss
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New section of the Ultra investigation.
The politician defends himself: “I am a stranger to the accusations”
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Barrafranca.
He has long since been removed from the office of mayor, following the commissioner for mafia infiltration of the Municipality of Barrafranca.
Now the former mayor Fabio Accardi is under investigation for a vote of Mafia political exchange with the boss Raffaele Bevilacqua.
The accusation is contained in the notice of conclusion of the preliminary investigations and contextual guarantee information signed by the deputy prosecutors of the Dda of Caltanissetta Pasquale Pacifico and Nadia Caruso, which is being notified in these days and which constitutes a new judicial section of the Ultra maxi-investigation, conducted by the Carabinieri del Ros and the provincial command of Enna.
In practice, the former mayor is criticized for having accepted the promise to obtain votes in view of his new candidacy for mayor in the administrative elections of 2021 “showing, in consideration, his willingness to facilitate the hiring of subjects of interest of the mafia organization within the Ati that had won the contract for the management of solid urban waste “in Barrafranca.
Accardi, again according to the accusation, would also have expressed his willingness to issue a certification in favor of Bevilacqua to be produced at the Surveillance Court of Catania that would allow him to be transferred to the town.
The well-known Mafia boss, one who in 2000 was appointed provincial head of Cosa Nostra by Bernardo Provenzano, a few years ago was placed under house arrest for health reasons, despite a life sentence.
In practice, counting on the help of the then mayor, he hoped to be able to return to Barrafranca.
Accardi has always professed to be innocent.
The news of his registration in the register of suspects has been known since the day of the Ultra operation, but it is the first time that the hypothesis of a crime that is being contested emerges, or the vote of political-mafia exchange.
Now, contacted by telephone, he says he is waiting to thoroughly evaluate the documents of the investigation.
And then he returns to declare himself absolutely unrelated to any accusation.
“We will prove it with my defenders – he-he says.
We will work to make my total extraneousness understood ”.
Barrafranca, it is recalled, was the first municipality in the history of the province of Enna to be a police station for the mafia.
There are nine suspects in all.
The others are Andrea Bernunzo, Salvatore Blasco, Calogero Lio, Stella Marotta, Salvatore Paternò, Salvatore Privitelli, Giuseppe Zuccalà and the forty year old Giuseppe Santapaola from Catania.
Salvatore Privitelli is accused of attempted extortion against a construction company and of extortion against the same Ati which had won the contract for disposal some waste.
Zuccalà and Blasco are accused of corruption.
The first, head of the technical office, is accused of having accepted from the entrepreneur Blasco, through a son of Bevilacqua, Flavio Alberto, the promise of sums of money in exchange for direct assignment to the Blasco Electrical Power company.
contracts for the supply and replacement of heating systems in the Verga and Don Bosco schools; and the ordinary and extraordinary management contract, operation, control, inspections, verifications, smoke analysis, appointment of the third party responsible, compilation and correct keeping of the booklets, of the municipal heating systems.
Bernunzo is accused of illegal possession of weapons, while Salvatore Paternò, Stella Marotta and Calogero Lio are accused of trafficking in cocaine, for having bought several batches of drugs in Catania from Santapaola, under investigation, from May to October 2019.
Sicilian news 2022-07-14 16:48:00