It was January 15, 1993, exactly 17 years ago, when the ROS carabinieri scored one of the most important coups in the fight against the mafia: the arrest, in Palermo, of the great boss of the time, Salvatore Riina. The capture took place exactly at 9 in the morning: Captain De Caprio, code name Ultimo, with some of his subordinate carabinieri blocks the car in which the Cosa Nostra boss was found, signaled on via Regione Siciliana - at the height of the Motel Agip – and arrests him.
The very important operation, which then led to the various life sentences of Riina, who died in prison in Parma in 2017, started in August 1992, in the aftermath of the mafia massacres that had embarrassed the democratic state: the carabinieri met in Palermo to define an action strategy intended to capture the head of the mafia. This meeting is attended by officers of both the territorial weapon and the ROS (acronym for Special Operational Group), with the aim of pooling the available information. The first comparisons, in particular through the cognitive data in the possession of Marshal Antonino Lombardo, lead to the identification of a common track, the one that winds around the name of Raffaele Ganci, head of the mafia "family" of the "Noce" district of Palermo, considered the sure way to get to the Riina.
At the end of September 1992, the Crimor section of the ROS commanded by Captain Sergio De Caprio, the Last Captain, launches an observation service with video footage and shadowing services on members of the Ganci family. In the first days of October, Domenico Ganci, Raffaele's son, is followed through the streets of the Uditore district, where he manages to make him disappear along Via Bernini.
At the same time, the Carabinieri Operational Unit of Palermo 2, launches investigations into Baldassare Di Maggio, at the time with a clean record, believed to be in possession of important information on the Cosa Nostra organization, as a former trusted man of Riina who, following disagreements over economic activities managed by the organization, had had to leave Sicily fearing for his own life, supplanted by Giovanni Brusca in the command of the district of San Giuseppe Iato and by Angelo Siino in the management of economic affairs. From an investigative point of view, this aspect gave hope that a possible arrest of him could lead to a probable collaboration with the police.
The Carabinieri of the Operational Unit of Group 2 locate Di Maggio in Piedmont, in Borgomanero (NO), and arrest him on 8 January 1993. The same evening Di Maggio begins to collaborate and questioned by Major Balsamo, who had meanwhile arrived in Piedmont, indicated some areas of Palermo where he had met Riina in the past and where, in his opinion, the home of the head of the mafia could be located.
Here is the long list of trials and convictions in which Riina was the protagonist (even before being captured):
convictions
- In 1992 Riina was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment together with the boss Francesco Madonia, for the murder of Captain Emanuele Basile
- In October 1993 he underwent the second life sentence, as instigator of the murder of boss Vincenzo Puccio.
- In 1994, another life sentence for the murder of three pentiti and that of a brother-in-law of Tommaso Buscetta.
- In 1995, in the process for the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Russo, was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano, Michele Greco and Leoluca Bagarella.
- The same year, in the process for the murders of commissioners Beppe Montana and Ninni Cassarà, was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia and Bernardo Provenzano
- The process followed for the murders of Piersanti Mattarella, Pio La Torre and Michele Reina, in which he was sentenced to a further life sentence together with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Bernardo Provenzano, Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia and Nenè Geraci.
- In 1995, in the process for the murder of General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, the head of the mobile Boris Giuliano and Professor Paolo Giaccone, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Bernardo Provenzano, Giuseppe Calò, Bernardo Brusca, Francesco Madonia, Nenè Geraci and Francesco Spadaro.
- In 1996 he was again sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of judge Antonino Scopelliti together with the bosses Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia, Giuseppe Giacomo Gambino, Giuseppe Lucchese, Bernardo Brusca, Salvatore Montalto, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci and Pietro Aglieri.
- In 1997, in process for the Capaci massacre, in which the magistrate Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and the escort (Antonio Montinaro, Vito Schifani, Rocco Dicillo) were killed, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment together with the bosses Pietro Aglieri, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Raffaele Ganci, Nenè Geraci, Benedetto Spera, Nitto Santapaola, Bernardo Provenzano, Salvatore Montalto, Giuseppe Graviano and Matteo Motisi.
- The same year, in the process for the murder of judge Cesare Terranova, Riina received another life sentence together with Michele Greco, Bernardo Brusca, Giuseppe Calò, Nenè Geraci, Francesco Madonia and Bernardo Provenzano.
- In 1998 he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with the boss Mariano Agate for the murder of the judge Giangiacomo Ciaccio Montalto.
- The same year, in the trial for themurder of the politician Salvo Lima, was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Francesco Madonia, Bernardo Brusca, Pippo Calò, Giuseppe Graviano, Pietro Aglieri, Salvatore Montalto, Giuseppe Montalto, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci, Raffaele Ganci, Giuseppe Farinella, Benedetto Spera, Antonino Giuffrè, Salvatore Biondino, Michelangelo La Barbera, Simone Scalici and Salvatore Biondo while Salvatore Cancemi and Giovanni Brusca were sentenced to 18 years in prison and the collaborators of justice Francesco Onorato and Giovan Battista Ferrante (who confessed to the crime) were sentenced to 13 years as perpetrators of the ambush. In 2003 the Cassation canceled the life sentence for Pietro Aglieri, Giuseppe Farinella, Giuseppe Graviano and Benedetto Spera while confirming the other convictions.
- In 1999 he was sentenced to life imprisonment as instigator for the massacre in via D'Amelio, in which judge Paolo Borsellino and five of his escorts (Emanuela Loi, Agostino Catalano, Vincenzo Li Muli, Walter Eddie Cosina and Claudio Traina) lost their lives. Together with him, the bosses Pietro Aglieri, Salvatore Biondino, Carlo Greco, Giuseppe Graviano, Gaetano Scotto and Francesco Tagliavia were sentenced to the same sentence.
- In 2000 he was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Giuseppe Graviano, Leoluca Bagarella and Bernardo Provenzano, for the attack in via dei Georgofili, in which five people lost their lives and museums and churches were damaged, as well as for the attacks in Milan and Rome.
- In 2002, for the murder of retired judge Alberto Giacomelli, Riina was sentenced to life imprisonment as principal;
- the same year the Court of Assizes of Caltanissetta sentenced Riina to life imprisonment for the murder of judge Rocco Chinnici together with bosses Bernardo Provenzano, Raffaele Ganci, Antonino Madonia, Salvatore Buscemi, Nenè Geraci, Giuseppe Calò, Francesco Madonia, Salvatore and Giuseppe Montalto, Stefano Ganci and Vincenzo Galatolo;
- always the same year, Riina was sentenced again to life imprisonment together with the boss Vincenzo Virga for the massacre of Pizzolungo, in which Barbara Rizzo and her sons, Salvatore and Giuseppe Asta, 6-year-old twins, lost their lives.
- In 2009 Riina received another life sentence, together with Bernardo Provenzano, for the Viale Lazio massacre.
- In February 2010 another life sentence for Riina, who together with the bosses Giuseppe Madonia, Gaetano Leonardo and Giacomo Sollami, decided, in 1983, the murder of Giovanni Mungiovino, a DC politician who had opposed the Corleonese mafia, Giuseppe Cammarata, who disappeared in 1989, and Salvatore Saitta, killed in 1992.
- On 26 January 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Court of Assizes of Milan because he was considered the instigator of the murder of Alfio Trovato of 2 May 1992, which took place in via Palmanova in Milan.
Absolutions
- On June 10, 2011, he was acquitted by the Court of Assizes of Palermo for "incompleteness of the evidence" (pursuant to article 530 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). the murder of September 16, 1970 by journalist Mauro De Mauro.
- On 14 April 2015 he was acquitted by the Court of Assizes of Florence from the charge of having been the instigator of the Rapido 904 massacre of 23 December 1984 for lack of evidence; the prosecutor had requested life imprisonment for Riina, the only defendant. In 1992 Pippo Calò brother of Carlo Calò, Guido Cercola, Franco Di Agostino and the German bomb technician Friedrich Schaudinn were convicted.
