New troubles for Leonardo Sacco, the former governor of the Misericordia of Isola Capo Rizzuto. The soldiers of the ICO Central Service and the Provincial Command of the Catanzaro Financial Police seized assets worth 7 million euros from the 46-year-old. The provision was issued by the Prevention Measures Section of the Court of Catanzaro, at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate. The seals were placed on 22 properties and 10 lands believed to be directly and indirectly attributable to Sacco. The restrictive measure, which will now have to be examined by the Court of Catanzaro in cross-examination, is a consequence of the bis appeal process resulting from the “Jonny” investigation of the anti-mafia prosecutor’s office. At the end of which, on 21 July last year, the former governor was sentenced to 8 years in prison for external involvement in a mafia association, fraud and fraudulent transfer of values.
The investigation
The “Jonny” operation, started on 15 May 2017 with 68 arrests ordered by the Catanzaro DDA, severed the tentacles of the Arena-Nicoscia gang of Isola Capo Rizzuto on the migrant reception center during the management of the Misericordia.
And in this criminal context the role played by the former number one of the brotherhood stands out. Who was deemed by the Catanzaro Court of Appeal to be “only” an associate and not at the top of the clan. Subsequently, subsequent economic and financial assessments conducted by Fiamme Gialle revealed a marked disproportion between the value of the assets acquired and the income declared by Sacco during the years 2002-2022.
But not only that. Because the judges of the Prevention Measures Section also noted “the alleged illicit derivation of the resources used” by the 46-year-old to find the assets (often registered in the name of family members) that ended up in the hands of the State. Hence the seals on properties and land. Since, the rapporteur judge Barbara Elia writes in the seizure decree, “for the purposes of the applicability of the measure of confiscation of assets in the availability of people suspected of belonging to mafia-type associations, it is sufficient” that there is “a disproportion between the availability and the income reported”. Just as – the provision continues – there must be on the one hand “suitable evidence to allow a well-founded inference that the assets for which confiscation is requested constitute the reuse of the proceeds of illicit activities”. And on the other hand, the failure to demonstrate the “legitimate origin of the money used for the purchase of these goods”. The seizure of Sacco is part of a broader investigation which has already led to the adoption of similar restrictive measures against other people involved in the “Jonny” investigation, for a total value of 9 million euros.