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The summer of '92 at the "Sayonara": in the kingdom of the Mancusos the "massacre summit" between 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra
After the massacres, the Nicotera structure becomes the nerve center of the future of Sicilian and Calabrian organized crime
VIBO VALENTIA A secret meeting, with a few high-profile guests, to define the next moves. The recent massacres of Capaci and via d'Amelio had taken away the two judges who were symbols of the fight against Cosa Nostra, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino , and the country was in a phase of absolute uncertainty, shocked by two high-profile murders committed in the space of a few weeks, bringing the State to its knees.
It was the summer of 1992 and "Cosa Nostra", strong in its successes, aimed to further raise the stakes, hitting (as is known) other targets in the rest of the Peninsula. In the meantime, it was still July, and it was looking for allies in Calabria.
The “Sayonara” of Nicotera Marina
The occasion is a meeting organized right here in our region, in Nicotera Marina, the undisputed kingdom of the 'ndrangheta and the already powerful Mancuso clan of Limbadi. The setting is the “Sayonara” tourist facility, where members of the clan and their associates moved around without problems. A hospitality facility historically considered “of the Mancuso clan” , a safe and protected place where criminal members “stayed during periods of inaction and even held real mafia summits in complete tranquility”. The investigators of the Catanzaro Anti-Mafia District Court wrote it down in black and white in the “Imperium” investigation, which merged into the “Maestrale” maxi-trial now being played out in the bunker courtroom in Lamezia Terme, before the judges of the collegiate court of Vibo Valentia.
Operation “Imperium” by the Catanzaro DDA
The Mancusos and the search
Since the 1990s, the “Sayonara” in Nicotera Marina has been of “particular interest because it was historically considered the Mancuso clan’s reception facility, a safe and protected place where criminal exponents stayed during periods of inaction and where they also peacefully held real mafia summits.” The strong bond between the Mancuso family of Limbadi and the facility, as the prosecutors write in the arrest warrant, is also supported by a house search that took place over 10 years ago. It was, in fact, March 28, 2013 when the personnel of the Flying Squad of Vibo Valentia and Catanzaro raided the home of the Marina di Nicotera hamlet after the arrest of the 'ndrangheta boss Pantaleone "Scarpuni" Mancuso (class of '61), which took place on March 7, also extended to a property in Corso Umberto I. On that occasion, copious extra-accounting documentation was found, including a large part regarding the management of the Villaggio Sayonara, the results of which were acquired in the files. A typewritten A4 sheet divided into three distinct columns in which, separately and for each single line, the following had been noted: names of natural and/or legal persons, for a total of n. 38; – the relative reference amount, for a total of 669,600 euros, erroneously indicated as 711,100 euros and, finally, explanatory notes for each name.
The “massacre” summit
«A nephew of Luigi Mancuso, Pantaleone Mancuso, came to Cosenza and told me that Luigi wanted to speak to me in Limbadi (…) I called someone close to me, a certain Umile Arturi… we got in the car and went to Limbadi…». This is the story of Franco Pino, a member of the Cosenza crime family, later a collaborator of justice, whose stories ended up at the center of the investigation into the “'ndrangheta-stragista” by the Anti-Mafia District of Reggio Calabria. «(…) then we found Luigi's nephew and he told us to all go to the Sayonara campsite. It was a tourist place in Nicotera, I don't know if it was owned by the Mancusos, but they moved freely in that area…» Pino continues. Once there, according to the story that ended up in the files and in the reasons for the appeal sentence «(…) there was Nino Pesce, there was also a person, a Calabrian who lived in Milan, but I didn't know him and he was introduced to me, a certain Franco Coco Trovato, that was his name. And there was also the son-in-law of this Coco Trovato. I think his name was Giuseppe De Stefano. And there was obviously Luigi Mancuso…». On that occasion, therefore, Nino Pesce, speaking on behalf of the Piromalli, had affirmed that the Sicilians had asked the Calabrians to participate in the offensive against the State because «it was in everyone's interest to adhere to that proposal if they wanted to prevent legislative hardening, not remembering the collaborator if there was any of the Piromalli at that meeting», we read further.
franco-pine
The stories of Franco Pino
In that famous meeting in '92 at the "Sayonara", however, the Sicilians were not there, but Nino Pesce and Franco Coco Trovato would have spoken for them. A "reported reasoning" according to the repentant Pino, "some reasoning done beforehand, done before sitting down to eat. These were things that they had already discussed for their own business...". The proposal of the Sicilians, brought by the Bruscas on behalf of Totò Riina and submitted to the Calabrian 'ndrangheta, was clear: to hit and attack institutional targets or more simply Carabinieri stations, "the aim was to practically subvert the State and... practically put the State with its back to the wall and force it to negotiate...". The meeting at the Sayonara beach lasted until the afternoon and both that day and on three or four other occasions later, Pino himself would have had the opportunity to discuss the topic with Luigi Mancuso, who would have told him that he did not agree to side against the Institutions and against the Carabinieri. In essence, the boss "never shared an open war against the institutions", also because, in that precise historical phase, Luigi Mancuso saw that proposal as something that would not have been useful. In fact, Calabrian crime, in the shadow of the Cosa Nostra and Corleonesi massacres, prospered and had built "good contacts to fix the trials", as can still be read in the reasons. At the end of that meeting at the "Sayonara", the proposal was not voted on. But, as Pino himself recounted, even though the Cosenza 'ndrangheta represented by him was not in favor, he would still have had to fall in line with the "Calabrian 'Ndrangheta" or the "Calabria 'Ndranghetista". "(...) if Luigi Mancuso had told me: "listen, here the Piromalli are joining, Pesce is joining, I am with Pesce and Piromalli and I am joining too", I would have joined. Reluctantly, but I would have joined too".
The history of the tourist center
The recent history of “Sayonara” has been reconstructed by the DDA. The property, at the end of bankruptcy proceedings, was acquired by Giuseppe Fonti, now on trial in “Maestrale”, as were two other important figures in the history of the tourist facility: Agatino Conti and Francesco Rapisarda, also on trial. In fact, the two of them were entrusted with the company only two months after Fonti’s arrival and on “Luigi Mancuso’s input”. Elements in this sense were provided by Pasquale Megna, collaborator of justice and son of Assunto, a well-known entrepreneur in the fishing sector, brother-in-law of the “Scarpuni” boss because he was married to a sister from Santa Buccafusca. The latter, in particular, was always said to have had a “strong interest in a particular accommodation facility: the Villaggio Sayonara in Nicotera Marina, managed until 26.08.2009 by the company Sayonara Srl declared bankrupt on that date by the Court of Vibo Valentia”. The corporate structure that manages the structure leads straight to the Mancuso clan and in particular to Luigi, “Crimine” for the province of Vibo Valentia and head of the Limbadi local, the “Supremo”. (g.curcio@corrierecal.it)
