Leonardo Messina - Arrest and pentimento

Arrest and pentimento

Messina was arrested in April 1992 and decided to become a government informant (pentito). He was the first mafioso to start collaborating after the Capaci massacre in which judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three men of his police escort were killed. He said he was moved by emotional appeal of Rosaria Schifani – the widow of one the police escorts of Falcone – against the Mafia.

Messina started to collaborate on June 30, 1992 and was a goldmine of information to Falcone’s colleague Paolo Borsellino, especially about the workings of the Mafia in central and southern Sicily. He talked about a rival mafia-like organisation in Sicily, the Stidda. It was composed originally of mafiosi who had left the organisation during the Second Mafia War of the early 1980s. The new group was particularly strong in southern Sicily around the towns of Agrigento, Caltanissetta and Gela. As a result of his declarations 203 arrest warrants were issued on November 17, 1992, in the so-called "Operation Leopard" (Operazione Leopardo). At that time the Mafia had killed Borsellino as well.