former fugitive hunter prefect – Corriere.it

After another day of suffering, amid rejected applications and relative setbacks, the government accelerates the Calabrian health commissioner. And, to avoid being exposed to the wind of a controversy that has lasted too long, he does not wait for the Council of Ministers on Sunday. But he summons a flash to close a chapter that was becoming increasingly embarrassing. The new commissioner who will have to manage the health of Calabria, who leaves the red zone on Monday to enter the orange, Guido Longo, 67, former prefect retired for two years. A man of institutions, who has already worked in Calabria, always in defense of legality, writes Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. I accepted – he answers – as an act of love for Calabria, the region where I trained professionally. Mine is also an institutional duty towards the Government, which has elected me and for which I thank.

Catanese, pure always in the mouth, Longo opened and closed his career in Calabria, from his first appointment in the Reggio cabinet to the role of prefect in Vibo Valentia. He is a household name in the fight against organized crime. But even more so is his nickname, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters, for the long list of arrested fugitives he has on his resume. He was number two in the Palermo cabinet when he captured Salvatore Madonia, the murderer of Libero Grassi. It was number one on Dia di Napoli when tightened the handcuffs on Angelo Nuvoletta’s wrists, the instigator of the murder of Giancarlo Siani. It was always he, at the head of the Yáñez group, who stayed all night in a villa in the Casal di Principe looking for Francesco Schiavone, known as Sandokan, until the boss came out of his underground bunker. And it was always up to him, as Palermo’s police chief, to ban for reasons of public order the funeral of another boss, Bernardo Provenzano. A name above suspicion, in short. Although there was some controversy during the period in which he had been a consultant to the parliamentary commission on the Telekom Serbia case.

His appointment comes after he leaves the scene for the role. as curator of Agostino Miozzo, coordinator of the technical-scientific committee for the Covid emergency. The government did not accept his requests and in particular that of being called back to the effective service of the pension, along with that of having a team of at least 25 people. He was back in contention too the name of Narciso Mostarda, director of a Roman ASL, not liked by the 5 Star Movement because of his past as a councilor of the Democratic Party in the Municipality of Frosinone. And the Rosy Bindi hypothesis had also circulated, who in his extensive resume also has the roles of Minister of Health and President of the Anti-Mafia Commission. But in the end, the government preferred a more neutral and apolitical name.