Italian Judge Accused of Mafia Ties Commits Suicide
A senior prosecuting magistrate in the government’s war against the Mafia committed suicide in Palermo on Thursday, two days after learning that an informer had accused him of links with organized crime.
The death of Judge Domenico Signorino, 48, stunned government officials on a day when an aggressive police campaign against organized crime notched major new arrests in both Sicily and mainland southern Italy.
Detectives in Palermo said that Signorino went to work normally in the Sicilian capital on Thursday but left soon afterward to return to his apartment. There, he shot himself, leaving a note to his wife in which he denied any involvement with the Mafia.
Signorino helped prosecute more than 400 accused Mafia members in the mid-1980s and was a key aide of chief anti-Mafia Judge Giovanni Falcone, who was murdered by the Mafia last June.
Informers, called pentiti , have fueled a wave of major roundups in recent months in Sicily and southern Italy.
Thursday morning, police armed with 96 warrants fanned out across the Caltanisetta region in central Sicily. They arrested scores of alleged Mafia members they accuse of dozens of Sicilian mob killings in recent years.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
