Messina Tenaro, the children of the last driver arrested: an avalanche of charges related to the fugitive

In recent months the circle around potential supporters of the deceased Matteo Messina Tenaro has become increasingly narrow. At the request of this District Anti-Mafia Directorate, the Carabinieri of ROS and the Provincial Carabinieri Command of Trapani and the guards of the Central Operational Service have been placed in a precautionary custody in the prison. , against the brothers Antonino and Vincenzo Lupino, both tried for aiding and abetting and failing to comply with the aggravating sentence of a conviction intended to benefit the Mafia organization known as Cosa Nostra. The operation, carried out in the context of investigations aimed at reconstructing the network of supporters who supported the then-fugitive Messina Tenaro, “made it possible to gather investigative elements leading to the hypothesis that the two suspects, together with their father Giovanni Salvatore Lupino. Currently detained and subject to summary judgment before the GUP of Palermo), of the Castelvetranese mafia boss have contributed to their behavior in maintaining high-level activities, providing long and varied assistance to him in his absence and role in the activated secret communication system in his favor ».

The investigations carried out made it possible to obtain serious clues regarding the diversified illegal activities carried out by the Lupino brothers “to protect the fugitive of the Trapani mafia leader”. The Lupino family, father and sons, helped the mafia boss find SIM cards for his mobile phone during his time on the run. As emerges from the investigation, Lupino Sr. activated the SIM on 21 January 2021, which remained unused until April 8, and then inserted it into the Huawei mobile phone the employer contacted during his hospitalization at the La Maddalena Clinic. “There are countless connections between the users used by Vincenzo Lupino and the users of the clinic in Maddalena” where the boss was operated on for cancer. But for subsequent control visits “there is a coincidence between the cells occupied by the phone of Antonino Lupino and the phone of Messina Tenaro,” writes the trial judge.

Brothers Vincenzo and Antonino Lupino knew the mafia boss's “true identity”. The investigators who coordinated the investigation believe this. “There can be no doubt about the specific knowledge on the part of Antonino and Vincenzo Luppino, as well as on the part of their father Giovanni Salvatore Luppino, of the true identity of Matteo Messina Tenaro”, writes the investigating judge.