Investigators have already heard from Damiano Pepe, the 64-year-old who was injured late on Friday evening, in the Lattughelle district of Cassano allo Ionio, in an ambush in which his partner Silvana Sibarelli, aged 60, was killed. The man, in fact, although wounded by several gunshots, is alert and has also received visits from some family members. The man is currently hospitalized in the Cosenza hospital under surveillance for security reasons. The investigation file, conducted by the Carabinieri of the provincial investigative unit of Cosenza and the Compagnia di Cassano, currently coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Castrovillari, could be transmitted to the DDA of Catanzaro as early as tomorrow.
Given the methods of the ambush and the caliber of Pepe, considered a leading element of the ‘Ndrangheta of Sibaritide, in fact, the investigators seem to have few doubts about the mafia origin of the act. The hitmen – there could have been two of them – fired around thirty shots at the couple with long weapons, perhaps even a Kalashnikov. Methods, therefore, typically mafia-like. Meanwhile, while waiting for the papers to be handed over to the Catanzaro DDA, the Carabinieri are also viewing the images of the video surveillance systems present in the area, in the hope of identifying a useful element to direct the investigations towards a well-defined lead to trace the perpetrators and therefore the motive for the crime.