Convicted of murder, he gave orders to his wife and two children
(ANSA) – CATANIA, MAY 23 – The wife and two children of a member of the Santapaola-Ercolano clan who is serving a life sentence for murder were arrested by the Catania police for extortion aggravated by the mafia method. A precautionary custody order in prison was issued against them by the investigating judge at the request of the Dda Etna. At the center of the investigation is the alleged ‘extortion’ to an entrepreneur in the lava stone extraction and processing sector who would have paid the ‘pizzo’ from 2012, paying a total of 1.7 million euros in cash, checks, bills and funds of opera.
According to the prosecution, to give orders to his family from prison was Giovanni Rapisarda, 64, a life sentence, detained for the murder of a well-known businessman from Catania committed in 1993, and the recipient of the same precautionary order issued for his wife and two children. who, assumes the Dda of Catania, were the executors of his orders. Santa Carmela Corso, 61, and Giuseppe Rapisarda, 34, arrested red-handed by the carabinieri after they had withdrawn a ‘bribe’ of € 2,000 from the extortion victim, and Valerio Rapisarda, 30, were taken to prison.
The investigations had been started after soldiers of the Paternò company had noticed several and frequent visits by the two Rapisarda brothers to the headquarters of a Belpasso company where hidden cameras were installed.
“The victim – reconstructs the Public Prosecutor of Catania – after the acquisition of a branch of the company already owned by other members of the Rapisarda family, despite having already handed over 700,000 euros in the last 10 years for unlawfully claimed credits of 1,000,000 euros , received a further extortion request for 700,000 euros, deferred over five years with the payment of a sum between 1,500 and 3,000 euros per week or, alternatively, the sale of the company “. In one of the last meetings with the victim Giuseppe Rapisarda would have explained to the entrepreneur that he had to pay because the quarry “was our thing” and that they were “twelve-thirteen years and we have to close this game” and reminding him that “my father is his pleasure this is it, because here was his thing. ” (HANDLE).