The Naples judge Antonio Baldassarre has validated the arrest and issued a pre-trial detention order for 73-year-old Gennaro Petrucci, husband of the anti-racket entrepreneur Silvana Fucito, accused of being the mastermind behind the murder of engineer Salvatore Coppola, who was shot in the back of the head in the San Giovanni a Teduccio district of Naples last March 12.
The measure against Petrucci stems from investigations by the Gico of the Economic and Financial Police Unit of the Naples Finance Police and the Mobile Squad of the Naples Police Headquarters, which, coordinated by the DDA (prosecutors Sergio Raimondi, Simona Rossi, and Maria Sepe) have allowed to attribute the motive of the murder to a real estate dispute concerning a thousand square meter villa in Portici (Naples).
The villa, with a large garden and swimming pool, is located in via Florard de Lauzieres de Thermines: it was seized in April 2014 by the Finance Police from «Effepi Fp Srl», a company of Silvana Fucito, Petrucci's wife and former president of the Association «San Giovanni a Teduccio for legality", as part of an investigation into tax fraud.
In May 2015, a procedure for the expropriation and sale of the property was started, and on October 12, 2021, it was purchased for 1,175,000 euros by a company from San Giorgio a Cremano (the «CO.GI. Immobiliare Srl» of 27-year-old Lorenzo Di Danilo).
On July 24, 2023, the Petrucci and Fucito couple filed a complaint alleging the illegitimacy of the auction's award of the property, claiming that behind the company from San Giorgio a Cremano was the 56-year-old Salvatore Abbate, known as «Totore a cachera», with a history of money laundering and fictitious registration in favor of various Camorra clans including the Mazzarella.
According to the complaint, during an inspection at the property being auctioned, Abbate was accompanied by Salvatore Coppola. According to investigators, this was the reason for Petrucci's resentment towards Coppola, leading him to hire 64-year-old Mario De Simone for the actual execution of the crime, in exchange for 20,000 euros, as the investigators claim based on some wiretaps.
In the complaint, Petrucci emphasized that Abbate had threatened him to force him to leave the villa, and for this reason, he asked the police to investigate Abbate for threats and also Coppola, for incitement to threaten. Petrucci, defended by lawyer Antonio Bucci, is in the Naples prison of Secondigliano. According to what the lawyer reports, his diabetic and heart conditions are kept under control through pharmacological therapy. Regarding the presence of people detained also for the complaints filed by his wife Silvana Fucito, the lawyer informs that the suspect «is kept in a condition of tranquility and safety»