Giuseppe Guttadauro (born August 18, 1948 in Bagheria,
Palermo province
The Province of Palermo ( it, provincia di Palermo; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced ...
of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
) is an Italian
Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
boss and a high-profile surgeon from the Rocella neighbourhood in Palermo. Born in Bagheria, he became the regent of the
Brancaccio
Brancaccio is a neighbourhood in the municipality of Palermo, Sicily, in Italy. It is a semi-traditional area of the working class. It was important in the history of the Cosa Nostra.
Antimafia priest Pino Puglisi
Giuseppe "Pino" Puglisi (, ; ...
mandamento after the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the Mafia boss
Gaspare Spatuzza
Gaspare Spatuzza (Palermo, 8 April 1964) is a Sicilian mafioso from the Brancaccio quarter in Palermo. He was an assassin for the brothers Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano who headed the Mafia family of Brancaccio. After the arrest of the Gravianos ...
in 1998.
Ruling Brancaccio
According to
Antonino Giuffrè
Antonino "Nino" Giuffrè (; born 21 July 1945) is an Italian mafioso from Caccamo in the Province of Palermo, Sicily. He became one of the most important Mafia turncoats after his arrest in April 2002.
Giuffrè was known in Mafia circles as (" ...
, a
pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
collaborating with the state, Guttadauro was an ally of
Bernardo Provenzano
Bernardo Provenzano (; 31 January 1933 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia clan known as the Corleonesi, a Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, and ''de facto'' the boss of bosses (''il capo ...
in his attempts to reverse his former ally
Totò Riina
Salvatore Riina (; 16 November 1930 – 17 November 2017), called (, Totò being the diminutive of Salvatore), was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s ...
’s strategy of violence against the Italian state. “To initiate the process of remodeling the image of Cosa Nostra,” Giuffrè explained, “Guttadauro made contacts in business and started a debate on how best to apply peacefully the process of silent reconstruction of Cosa Nostra.”Longrigg, ''Boss of Bosses'' p.168 /ref>
Guttadauro’s grand Palermo villa served as a meeting point for both mafiosi and the people that counted in public life. According to prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato: “… first of all members of the military Mafia would come to receive instructions regarding protection rackets, drug trafficking, and other crimes. Then, almost as if Guttadauro was doing a double shift, members of the city’s bourgeoisie would arrive, including doctors, lawyers, and politicians. These would fine-tune regional and national political strategies that were invariably designed to subjugate public institutions to the predatory interests of the friends of friends. This was achieved by bloodless, but effective, methods involving financial backing and collective resources of every type.”
Guttadauro also had business acumen. He planned the vast development of a shopping centre and multiplex in Brancaccio, selling his own land, but making sure he would be the guarantor for protection of the site. This way he could guarantee the employment of a significant amount of mafiosi.
Arrest
Guttadauro was arrested in November 2002. His wife Gisella Greco and son were arrested on December 6, 2002 in a vast operation against the Mafia (Operation Ghiaccio), in which Guttadauro received another arrest warrant. His wife and son allegedly continued to run illicit business in his absence and acted as a conduit for his messages to other Mafia bosses on the outside.Mafia, 44 arresti a Palermo La Sicilia, December 6, 2002 ABC News, December 7, 2002
Police had bugged Guttadauro’s apartment and he was overheard discussing political appointments with the city's public health councillor Domenico Miceli, himself a doctor. (Miceli was sentenced to eight years for mafia association in December 2006)Patients die as Sicilian mafia buys into the hospital service The Guardian, January 1, 2007 Guttadauro learned that his home was being "bugged" from another doctor. The colleague alleged that he, in turn, had been tipped off by the President of the Sicilian region
Salvatore Cuffaro
Salvatore "Totò" Cuffaro (born 21 February 1958) is a former Italian politician and former President of Sicily. He has served an almost 5-year jail sentence for aiding Cosa Nostra.Sicilian governor on mafia charge The Guardian, September 3, 2004
The inquiry set up to trace the origin of leaks during an investigation into Guttadauro led to the questioning of Cuffaro by the Palermo prosecuting office, ''The Independent'', June 28, 2003 and in September 2004 to an indictment charging Cuffaro with aiding and abetting the Mafia. Cuffaro refused to resign when sent for trial, saying he would only do so if convicted. In the meantime he was re-elected as President in 2006 regional election defeating Rita Borsellino, the sister of the late judge
Paolo Borsellino
Paolo Emanuele Borsellino (; scn, Pàulu Borsellino; 19 January 1940 – 19 July 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying t ...
, killed by the Mafia in 1992. On October 15, 2007, the prosecution requested eight years' imprisonment for Cuffaro for passing confidential information to the so-called moles in the Palermo Antimafia directorate.Mafia, chiesti otto anni per Cuffaro Corriere della Sera, October 15, 2007 Cuffaro was sentenced to seven years in prison for favouring
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
Guttadauro was sentenced to 13 years and four months. He was released on March 2, 2012, receiving a reduction of 800 days of his sentence for good behaviour. La Repubblica, March 3, 2012
2022 arrest
In February 2022, the Italian police arrested Giuseppe Guttadauro, who was placed under house arrest, and his son Mario Carlo, who ended up in prison. They are accused of mafia-type association.