December 23, 2015
ROME (AFP) - A suspected accomplice in the murder of an anti-mafia judge was arrested Tuesday 32 years after the killing thanks to a sting operation combining an anonymous letter with wiretaps, Italian media reported Tuesday.
Thanks to the ruse, Rocco Schirripa is now in jail in Milan as a suspect in the 1983 killing of Turin judge Bruno Caccia, according to the reports.
Investigators sent an anonymous letter to a former 'Ndrangheta mafia chief, Domenico Belfiore, who is currently serving out a life sentence for ordering the killing -- but he is under house arrest for health reasons.
The letter contained a photocopy of an old newspaper article about Belfiore's arrest with Rocco Schirripa's name written on the back.
The letter got reaction from Belfiore and others, just as the investigators hoped, enabling them to overhear wiretapped conversations that pointed to Schirripa's role in the killing as a "soldier" working for the Belfiore clan of 'Ndrangheta.
The body of judge Caccia, who was investigating 'Ndrangheta's criminal activities in the northen Piedmont region, was found riddled with 14 bullets.
The murder during the so-called "Years of Lead" marked by violence by the extremist Red Brigade group was at first thought to be politically motivated, before it turned into a mafia probe.
The scheme that identified Schirripa was coordinated by the Milan prosecution office and star prosecutor Ilda Boccassini, famous for taking on former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
