BRESCIA – «Ala ‘fairy tale». Liar Mavalà. What does the Turkestan Islamic Part do with the goblets of white and bitters and the smargiassate that slide on the bar counter of Valtrompia, and then down to Franciacorta passing through Folsà, Folzano in Brescia dialect, 1,500 souls on the belt of the Lioness of Italy? In which film can the jihadist militias of Jund Al Aqsa and a ramshackle gang made up of village swindlers, houseware thieves, Albanian traffickers who run between Lake Iseo and Concesio, the town of Giovanni Battista Montini, or Pope Paul VI? «It seems to me an absurd story, come on, I don’t believe my son set up such a thing. He made his mistakes and paid, yes. But I don’t see him pretending to be kidnapped for three years ».
Gianfranco Sandrini, 60 years old and not hearing them, in fact he is still a Brescia ultrà. One of the old guard, one of those who lived in the forefront of the explosion of turbulent football firms in northern Italy, between the 80s and 90s. His son Alessandro, a former robber, is the man around whom the mysteries revolve, let’s say, of this bizarre anonymous kidnapping who took prisoners for pretense, put them on a plane in Orio al Serio and then sold the complete package: all inclusive . And then he, Alessandro Sandrini, really ended up in the network of black caliphs. “Money to cheat?” I don’t know, I know that no money has come to me, I have never seen a euro », says Sandrini father.
Folzano, southern Brescia. Of the 33 districts in which the city is divided, this is the smallest: a supermarket, a bar, an 18th century church dedicated to San Silvestro. The descending parable of the 32-year-old vacationer between Turkey and Syria who agrees to be kidnapped only to steal money from the state and who then enters the tragedy from the farce, begins and ends here. “We are a very small reality where everyone knows everyone and which, essentially, relies totally on Brescia for services,” says Anna Maria Iannelli, president of the district council. “Sandrini? I do not know who he is. I heard about this story on the news today. ‘
It is certainly genuine Iannelli. After that, those who think that in these latitudes people are dying to talk about the most uncomfortable stories, lives in the world of fairy tales. It is true: there is armed fundamentalism, the ghost of Isis. But it breaks into a plot that in Folzano, before the pitiful videos to stir the conscience and open the ransom bags, had known its highest point in two taps from the dachshund band of the country. The lion’s week of the aspiring Arsenio Lupine Alessandro Sandrini: May 19-24, 2016. A housewares shop in Concesio, a tobacconist: 4000 thousand euros of booty and the cameras that frame it. Penalty: two years and six months. Then, the turning point.
There is a flight to Adana and the indecent proposal of the gang: instead of the costume worn on the beaches of the Levant Sea, the orange jumpsuit in which the groups twinned with Al Qaeda dress their prisoners. The idea was also born from Brescia: the minds are the two Albanians Fredi Frrokaj and Olsi Mitraj and the third accomplice, Alberto Zanini. They all live in the same province, but not neighbors: one is in Flero, the first outskirts of the capital, the other in Mazzano, towards Lake Garda, and Zanini in Gussago in Franciacorta. Evelina Manzata is Sandrini’s mother. He says he doesn’t want to know anything more about this story. Local reporters recall his appeals: it was January 2018. “My son is held prisoner in a room two meters by three, they point their weapons at him and say that in two months the matter must be resolved. One has already passed, please do something. “
The other anomalous kidnapping – same period – is Sergio Zanotti, an entrepreneur from Brescia (he is not investigated). He returned to live in Marone, on Lake Iseo, in the apartment in Via Alegi. From his first wife Zanotti he had three daughters. Listen to what the woman says: “In my opinion this story of the fake kidnapping is a hoax. But if not, Sergio has closed. He told us that when they held him prisoner near Aleppo he was forced to eat grass. Like a horse. I don’t even want to think that he told us lies. However you write it: this gentleman and I have been separated and divorced for more than 20 years ».
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