Son of mafia boss’s favorite in Giarre prison, deputy chief and vice mayor of Itala arrested
Carmelo Palo, 43 years old, the deputy mayor of Itala (Messina), has been arrested by the mobile team of the Catania Police Headquarters as part of an investigation into his role as assistant head of the prison police at the Giarre prison. An arrest warrant has been executed against him and he was notified while he was in Assisi for the feast of San Francesco.
The mayor of Itala, Daniele Laudini, has decided to revoke Carmelo Palo’s appointment to guarantee the serenity and operability of the municipal administration.
It is alleged that Palo facilitated corruption and mafia activities in favor of a detainee, Antonio Di Grazia, 43 years old, also the recipient of the arrest warrant in prison, the son of Orazio, indicated as the head of the “Laudani family” in the Picanello district of Catania. The investigating judge reserved the decision on the house arrest requested for a third suspect after the preliminary interrogation provided for by the new regulations.
According to reports, the Catania mobile team, while executing the arrest warrant against Palo and Di Grazia, also carried out, under a judge’s decree, the seizure of a commercial enterprise.
The prosecution accuses Palo of providing Di Grazia with “confidential information, delaying the insertion of a disciplinary report into the databases in order to avoid consequences on an upcoming permit release, and failing to report the detainee’s possession of a cell phone.”
Palo also allegedly “warned Di Grazia about imminent cell searches and allowed him to illegally use the office phone.” In exchange for these favors, the Catania Prosecutor’s Office alleges that the senior police inspector serving at the Giarre prison received promises to “place bets on football events on his behalf, advancing the sums to bet, and to hand over cash sums to be kept at home with the possibility of using them for his own needs.” The prosecution claims that the “public official accepted” these promises.
The Prosecutor’s Office also alleges that the offense was committed with mafia methods, using the intimidating force of the associative bond and the condition of subjection and omertà deriving from the presence of the mafia association in the territory. This is because “Antonino Di Grazia, son of Orazio, a member of the Laudani clan, responsible for the Picanello group, evoked the economic and criminal power of his family as the basis of the productive pact with Palo.”
Favori nel carcere di Giarre al figlio del boss, arrestato un assistente capo che è anche vicesindaco di Itala
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