He presented himself as a man capable of “moving the right levers”, someone who could guarantee a permanent position at Anas, the company that manages Italian roads. All that was needed was “economic help”, he said. Behind that promise, however, was hidden a cruel deception that, for months, would have drained resources, energy and dignity from a fragile person.
It is the story that yesterday morning led to the arrest of a 33-year-old from Brolo, achieved by a precautionary custody order under house arrest issued by the GIP of the Court of Patti, Dr. Andrea La Spada, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Patti.
The man is seriously suspected of the crimes of extortion and aggravated fraud, committed – according to what emerges – against a vulnerable person in the municipality of Ficarra, between August 2024 and today.
According to what was reconstructed by the investigators, the thirty-three-year-old first gained the victim’s trust with convincing ways and the language of an “insider”. He would have made him believe that he could help him obtain a public job at Anas, in exchange for a sum of money. But the dream of a secure job would soon turn into a nightmare. Once the first payments had been received, the man began to demand other sums, this time accompanying the requests with threats and physical attacks, until he reduced the victim to a state of fear and total submission.
The investigative activity, conducted by the Carabinieri of the Patti Company and coordinated by the Patti Public Prosecutor’s Office, made it possible to collect serious circumstantial elements. The investigators listened to the offended person, analyzed telephone records, connection cells and other technical findings, outlining a clear and coherent picture of the conduct attributed to the suspect. According to what was reported by the GIP, the man clearly conceived a complex criminal plan, based on a “castle of lies”, so much so that he did not stop even in the face of the victim’s desperate economic difficulties.
In the order, the judge speaks of “absolute bravado and unscrupulousness”, underlining how the suspect was able to cynically exploit the vulnerability of the offended person, subjugating him with a series of serious and repeated threats.
The precautionary measure was ordered to avoid the risk of evidence contamination and the possibility of repetition of the crime, considering the seriousness and violence of the behaviors ascertained during the investigation phase. The man is now under house arrest, awaiting the next stages of the judicial proceedings.