The questioning came late, but it is radical. One of the most famous Italian mafia bosses, Francesco “Sandokan” Schiavone, has become a collaborator of justice after 26 years in prison, AFP learned on Friday from a judicial source. Francesco Schiavone, the former head of the Casalesi clan, based in Casal di Principe, near Naples and reputed to be the most powerful of the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, was nevertheless considered one of the richest and most cruel people of Europe when he was arrested in 1998.
He was sentenced to several life sentences following the “Spartacus” trial of 36 members of the Casalesi clan. His decision to collaborate with justice constitutes “the umpteenth hard blow against the Camorra and organized crime”, welcomed Chiara Colosimo, the president of the Anti-Mafia Parliamentary Commission. Francesco Schiavone and the Casalesi were involved in brutal score-settling between clans fighting for control of Casal di Principe in the 1980s and 1990s and drug trafficking.
The cruelty of the Casalesi and their economic and political power were recounted in Robert Saviano's bestselling book "Gomorrah," which was later made into a film and television series. The writer, however, was skeptical on Friday regarding the possibility of Francesco Schiavone's real collaboration with justice. “Will he succeed in doing this without revealing where the Camorra's money is and without demonstrating the real links with politics and business? » he asked on Instagram.
“Pentiti”, transfer and trickery
Several members of Francesco Schiavone's family had already decided in the past to collaborate with justice by becoming "pentiti" (repentants). His cousin, Carmine Schiavone, began doing so in the 1990s, revealing, among other things, how the mafia dumped toxic waste into the fields, wells and lakes of the region suspected of having been originally of an increase in cancers among the local population.
Two of Sandokan's imprisoned sons, Nicola and Walter, began collaborating with the justice system in 2018 and 2021 respectively. He himself was recently transferred from a prison in northern Italy to that of Italy. Aquila, where Sicilian godfather Matteo Messina Denaro was imprisoned before dying last year. According to certain media, the rumors concerning his illness, intended to explain his departure to this prison, were only a ruse to conceal a transfer linked to his collaboration with the justice system.
Francesco Schiavone was nicknamed "Sandokan" because of his vague resemblance to the actor who played the eponymous hero, a pirate, in a popular television series from the 1970s.