The alleged "protection money" demands made by the police officer to the drug dealer have recently led to disagreements and tensions . This is one of the issues being investigated by investigators from the Milan Flying Squad in the investigation coordinated by prosecutor Giovanni Tarzia and prosecutor Marcello Viola into the death of Abderrahim Mansouri, killed on January 26 in the Rogoredo woods during an anti-drug control by assistant chief Carmelo Cinturrino .
The policeman is now under investigation for voluntary homicide , an increasingly solid accusation which was also supported by the interrogations carried out yesterday at the police station by his four colleagues who were charged with aiding and abetting and failing to provide assistance.
The investigation, ongoing for over three weeks, is painting a very different picture than the one immediately described by the officer, now in serious trouble. A few hours after the crime, he told the prosecutor that he fired a shot after seeing Mansouri pick up the gun and point it at him . The shot, fired out of "fear," fatally wounded the 28-year-old.
This version was immediately dismissed by the prosecutor, prompting a thorough investigation. Yet even today, Cinturrino, during a meeting with his lawyer, Piero Porciani, more or less reiterated that he acted in self-defense, adding that he "never, ever" had anything to do with drug dealers.
His colleagues, however, are telling a different story. Invited to appear at the offices on Via Fatebenefratelli, they clarified their position, each offering a piece of a puzzle that is slowly coming together.
First of all, it is suspected that the replica of the gun without the red cap, found near the lifeless body of the 28-year-old, may have been brought to the crime scene inside a backpack that a colleague of the 42-year-old, the one near him at the time of the shooting, went to collect - as also appears from the CCTV images - from the Mecenate police station .
This would explain the 23 minutes that passed between the robbery and the call for help. It was enough time to obtain the fake revolver —on which a series of genetic traces were found and two already identified—and place it at the crime scene.
Investigators calculated this time based on phone calls the victim received from a friend, also a drug dealer, who wanted to warn him of the police arrival ("run, run"), and the call to 911, about which Cinturrino, among other things, had previously lied to his colleagues. According to interrogations, he had told them he had immediately alerted emergency services, but this was not true.
"He handled everything in those phases; we had nothing to do with the murder," they reportedly said, essentially. This scenario outlined by the investigation also includes—it's theorized—the opaque management of some anti-drug operations for which the officer wore the uniform. The statements of those who were with him in the Rogoredo woods reveal borderline and illegal behavior, which is being investigated: on some occasions, he allegedly attacked drug addicts and small-time dealers in the area, and some were arrested "inflated" by a Milan court ruling. Others, however, allegedly worked undisturbed in exchange for a few "sticks." A "protection money" was also demanded from Mansouri, which, in recent times, has reportedly been a source of friction and disagreements .
(Unioneonline)
