The Court of Appeal of Catanzaro has reduced from 20 years to 8 years in prison the sentence inflicted on Leonardo Sacco, a former governor of the mercy of Isola Capo Rizzutoas part of the process resulting from the investigation of the District Anti -Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro which in 2017 led to theJonny operation with which the investigators revealed The heavy interference of the Arena and Nicoscia gangs in the management of the reception center for migrants of Sant’Anna. This is the second appeal process celebrated against Sacco and 38 other people involved in that investigation, whose appeals against a previous decision of the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro were accepted by the Cassation in March 2023 which, canceling some of the crimes contested, ordered a new second instance judgment.
Today the Court chaired by the judge Antonio Battaglia has the sentence issued by redetermining the penalties for 37 defendantsafter exclusion of aggravating circumstances, and also pronouncing two acquittals, those for Francesco Arena and Francesco Bruno. With theJonny operationdated 15 May 2017, The District Anti -Mafia Directorate of Catanzaro brought to light the interference of the Arena gang in large sectors the economy of Isola Capo Rizzuto and in particular of the reception center for migrants.
In particular The parish priest of Isola Capo Rizzuto, Don Edoardo Scordio, and the then governor of Mercy, Leonardo Sacco, ended up on the defendants’ counter. Both accused of the mafia association and to have facilitated the Arena gang allowing them to lengthen the tentacles on the reception center by making especially through the contracts for the canteen. In Sacco, in particular a series of charges for malversation was contested, or the fraudulent use of the funds allocated for the reception of migrants, as well as that he had been the organizer and the promoter of the mafia association defeated with the Jonny investigation, as well as a series of aggravating and a scam. For all these crimes, the former governor of Mercy had been sentenced at first instance to 17 years and 4 months of imprisonment, then increased to 20 years in the first appeal process. The Supreme Court then excluded his responsibility in the Malversations and ordered a new process by excluding the role of organizer and promoter of the mafia organization who managed the proceeds intended for migrants.
Arrested in May 2017, Sacco took 6 years of imprisonment under 41 bis before being released in March 2023 precisely by virtue of the decision of the Cassation. Last April, the Court of Auditors of Calabria sentenced the former governor of Misericordia, Leonardo Sacco and the former parish priest Don Edoardo Scordio to pay 34,904,090 euros in favor of the Ministry of the Interior for the tax damage caused with the illegal management of the funds intended for the management of the reception center for migrants of Isola Capo Rizzuto.