Dossieraggio, De Gennaro in Anti-Mafia and the secret response on the foreign “hand” –

Rita Cavallaro and Edoardo Sirignano

March 23, 2024

The response classified in the Commission further deepens the mystery regarding the alleged instigators of the dossier activity, carried out by Striano&Co in the Anti-Mafia offices. Yesterday morning the very technical intervention on the functioning of access to databases, provided by the general commander of the Guardia di Finanza Andrea De Gennaro, took a back seat when the question from the Northern League senator Gianluca Cantalamessa exploded at Palazzo San Macuto. The representative of the Northern League asked a very delicate question, which we could summarize as follows: Lieutenant Pasquale Striano, already coming from Dia where he had worked with the then prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho, was recommended by someone to join the National Anti-Mafia Directorate , where De Raho himself would take command a few months later? A question to which the head of the yellow flames had begun to answer timidly, only to then realize that the matter could have created political embarrassment for the five-star exponent, who is vice-president of that Commission. Especially in light of the fact that, just when De Raho was leading the Dia, he signed the arrests of the then minister Claudio Scajola for the Matacena case, a trial in which Striano testified four times on the results of his investigations.

A situation that makes the controversy raised by Senator Maurizio Gasparri even stronger, who, before starting the work, once again underlines how the presence of the former magistrate in that body remains completely inappropriate. «There is a clear conflict of interest», he claims, addressing the president Chiara Colosimo, «which cannot be ignored. Everyone will do what they want, but for consistency I want to reiterate what was said outside.” The clarification, however, provokes the immediate reaction of the group leader of the Democratic Party Walter Verini, who, like a good lawyer, replies to what his Forzista colleague said: «De Raho has all the experience and authority to decide, in full autonomy, how be more useful at work. He will decide.” All followed by the connection, which no one expects, with the affair concerning the Apulian mayor Antonio Decaro, who according to the reconstruction of the Nazarene would be a “victim” like the five-star parliamentarian: “If you really can’t wait – clarifies the parliamentarian dem – you can always ask Piantedosi to appoint an access commission to the Anti-Mafia Commission, as he did for the Municipality of Bari”. A joke that irritates, quite a bit, those who represent the government forces. Among others, Saverio Congedo, FdI deputy and member of the Commission, considers it an “instrumental attack” against the majority.

Controversy aside, General De Gennaro’s intervention left lights and shadows. Some aspects of the investigation remained unclear, also because the commander made it clear that he would not speak about specific facts of the investigation coordinated by the Perugia prosecutor, Raffaele Cantone. But he guaranteed that it was not the Corps that had to monitor Striano’s work. «For a very long part of his career, despite being a financier, Lieutenant Striano, who has always been in the Gdf and still is, was not employed on a daily basis in a department of the Gdf but in different structures, most recently the national anti-mafia prosecutor’s office. Whoever is authorized to verify the content of the work assigned to him”, said De Gennaro, “is evidently the one who assigned him that job, who is not the commander of the currency police unit”. And to the specific question “Laudati then?”, the general remarked: “Laudati”. Who, under investigation, said in recent days that his activity fell under the control of De Raho.