Mafioso planned to slit female prosecutor's jugular vein by hiding blade in his rectum, police allege

Italian police dealt a crushing blow to leading Mafia clan Sacra Corona Unita Photo: ANDREW MEDINA/SOURCE

The Italian mobster who falsely claimed he wanted to become an informant, actually wanted to attack the prosecutor with a ceramic blade hidden in his rectum, police say.

Pancrazio Carrino, 42, allegedly developed a burning hatred for prosecutor Carmen Ruggiero after she led an operation codenamed «Wolf» that dealt a crushing blow to the leading Sacra Corona Unita mafia clan based in the southern region of Puglia.

Ms Ruggiero's investigation led to the arrest of 22 suspected Mafiosi, including Carrino, whose nickname Stellina, or Little Star, comes from the star tattoo on his forehead.

Prosecutors accused him of being a member of Lamendola . The Cantanna clan, one of the most powerful in the Sacra Corona Unita, claims to have been involved in supplying drugs to traffickers and conducting “punitive expeditions” against rivals.

He is said to have been hell-bent on revenge and hatched what one Italian newspaper called a “devilish plan.”

“I was angry at everyone who represented the state,” he is said to have later told investigators.< /p> Pancrazio Carrino told the police that he was ready to become an informant. Photo: DAN CHIPPENDALE

Two weeks after his arrest, on July 31 last year, he told authorities that he was willing to become a “pentito,” or informant, slinging mud at mafia clans in exchange for a reduction in his time behind bars.

He said he would like to speak with Ms. Ruggiero, who was the senior prosecutor of the city of Lecce.

He allegedly made a makeshift blade from a piece of ceramic that he took from the toilet in his detention center and hid it in his rectum just before go to a meeting with the prosecutor.

During the interrogation, he asked to go to the toilet, took out the blade and hid it in his trousers, ready for use. .

“I sat in front of the prosecutor. I was following a Carabinieri officer to see if I was close enough to cut the prosecutor’s throat without blocking me,” he allegedly later told investigators.

Living under police protection

But a Carabinieri lieutenant named Alberto Bruno realized that something was wrong. Confronting Carrino and searching him, he found a makeshift blade.

“If I had been as reasonable that day as I am now, Carmen Ruggiero would have become history,” a mobster now under investigation. for attempted murder, reportedly told investigators.

Ms. Ruggiero lives under police protection because of threats she receives from the Mafia, as does another female prosecutor in the region, Maria Francesca Mariano.

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She was given a police escort and a bulletproof car after a goat's head with a knife stuck into it was left outside her house.

She also received a letter written in blood, talking about satanic rituals and death threats.