Jul 16 2007
Ex-police informant arrested in Italy on charges of Mafia association
ROME: A mobster-turned-police informant was arrested after he went back to his criminal roots, plotting murders and other attacks in Sicily, officials and news reports said Monday.
Calogero Pulci was picked up on charges including Mafia association, according to the ANSA news agency.
Investigators feared Pulci might escape from the tiny Sicilian village where he was based, Renato Di Natale of the anti-Mafia police in Caltanissetta, Sicily, told private TV Sky TG24.
Pulci was once a driver and close aide of top boss Giuseppe Madonia, who was imprisoned and convicted in the 1990s.
Pulci started cooperating with magistrates and testified in several trials, including those that followed the back-to-back killings of top anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falconi and Paolo Borsellino, whom Italy is remembering this year on the 15th anniversary of their deaths.
He was released from prison in October and decided to abandon the witness protection program, ANSA said. He went back to his native village of Sommatino in central Sicily and sought to rise up the ranks of the local mob.
He was plotting to kill the local mayor and another Mafia suspect, as well as stage attacks against the Carabinieri police, according to ANSA. He is also accused of forcing businessmen and shop owners to pay the “pizzo” extortion fee.
The informant program has been controversial over the years, with critics saying imprisoned criminals may lie to gain leniency. But prosecutors insist they are a major weapon in the fight against the mob.
Ex-police informant arrested in Italy on charges of Mafia association - The Associated Press - Monday, July 16, 2007 - http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=6678481
