Investigation on Tremestieri Etneo Municipality, mayor and 5 others arrested will be heard by judge soon.
Today, the six people arrested in the context of the Pandora investigation by the Catania Prosecutor’s Office on alleged cases of mafia infiltration in the Municipality of Tremestieri Etneo will be questioned by the examining magistrate Carla Aurora Valenti. Also under investigation for corruption is the regional deputy of the League, Luca Sammartino, who resigned as vice president of the Region and Agriculture minister after being suspended from public duties for a year. The investigation, which involves a total of 30 suspects, is based on investigations by the investigative unit of the Carabinieri of the provincial command of Catania.
The first to be interrogated by the examining magistrate are the mayor of Tremestieri, Santi Rando, a policeman on leave for years, subject to a custodial order in prison for political-mafia exchange along with Pietro Alfio Cosentino, considered the reference point of the Santapaola-Ercolano clan in Tremestieri Etneo, who allegedly “worked to ensure compliance with specific electoral agreements conducive to the election” of the mayor. The four arrested and put under house arrest will be heard: Giovanni Naccarato, a municipal manager, architect Puccio Monaco, at the time a consultant to the mayor, engineer Paolo Di Loreto, and the historic opposition councilor Mario Ronsisvalle, who then became a supporter of Rando in the 2021 Municipal elections. Rando and Ronsisvalle have been suspended from their roles as administrators by the prefect of Catania.
According to the Catania Prosecutor’s Office, the “corrupt officials would have received money and other various benefits, almost always thanks to the constant and ‘professional’ intermediary activity of engineer Paolo Di Loreto, to grant permits and assign work to friendly entrepreneurs.” Among the recipients of the precautionary measure, executed by the Carabinieri as part of Operation Pandora, there are also “four entrepreneurs, one of whom died of natural causes, who would have benefited, in exchange for money and other benefits illicitly given to public officials, from the granting of municipal permits and assignments of public works, and even just promises, as in the case of the contract for the renovation of the local Carabinieri barracks, which was never carried out.”
L’inchiesta sul Comune di Tremestieri Etneo, il sindaco e gli altri 5 arrestati saranno sentiti subito dal gip
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