Murder over drug debts in gambling: inside the crime scene. VIDEO

He would have been killed due to conflicts arising from issues related to drug trafficking and gambling, the 35-year-old Salvatore Privitera found charred by his parents inside a T-Roc rented in Carlentini (Syracuse) on January 6. According to the Prosecutor's Office of Catania, he was killed with a gunshot to the back of the head by Pietro Catanzaro, 36, son of Giovanni, a member of the Cappello-Bonaccorsi clan, and Danilo Sortino, 23, who has previous convictions for property crimes and drug trafficking. The two have been arrested following a custody order issued by the investigating judge and executed by the carabinieri of the provincial commands of the Etna capital and Syracuse. The crimes they are accused of, aggravated by the mafia method, are murder, concealment of a corpse, illegal possession of firearms, and damage followed by arson.

The prosecutor Francesco Curcio, at a press conference, spoke of a «brutal crime that has been resolved with an exemplary investigation considering that it is a murder from January 5, even though the charred body was discovered the next day inside an abandoned car in the countryside of Carlentini».

According to the reconstruction by the Prosecutor's Office, the two suspects first tried to erase the traces by starting a fire at the crime scene and then placed the corpse inside the T-Roc rented by the victim. They then went to contrada San Demetrio in Carlentini where they set the fire. The victim's body was found in the back of the vehicle.

The breakthrough in the investigation came from the scientific activities conducted at the crime scene by the Sis of the carabinieri of Catania. Inside the car, there were human remains that were subjected to a DNA test to confirm the identity of the victim.