He hunted down dangerous mafia fugitives, participated in the investigations on the kidnappings in Sardinia and then finished his career in the State Police in the protection unit of justice collaborators in Cagliari. Antonello Caria, a 60-year-old agent from Cagliari, has been retired since January 1st . In his almost 42 years of service he risked his life, especially in the years of the bloody fight against the Cosa Nostra: «It was like being in the trenches. The fight against the mafia was a war. You suffered and shared the danger with your colleagues. You went out in the morning and didn't know if you'd come home in the evening. And you were afraid of dying,” explains Caria.
Many memories in his long career. And so many names that he will never forget. In Sicily, at the anti-mafia investigative unit of the Palermo mobile team, he experienced the murders of Beppe Montana, Salvatore Marino and Ninni Cassarà. «Cassarà was a father and older brother to all of us. The day he was killed I should have gone with him. At last I stayed in the office. I was 23 and I never met anyone like him again." Years of investigations and hunts for fugitives, with months of stalking locked up in a van to observe and take photos of baptisms, weddings, funerals of mafiosi and their families .
In his past, the escort to Judge Falcone, also met in Asinara when Falcone and Borsellino wrote a large part of the order of the Maxi Trial to the Mafia. «The magistrates, with the collaborators of justice, won in the end», highlights Caria. Then the return to Sardinia and the investigations into murders and kidnappings such as those of Giuseppe Vinci, Mira Furlanetto and little Farouk : "As a Sardinian I was ashamed for cutting off a child's ear".
Now retirement. But he will continue to carry out legality projects and will maintain his trade union commitment in Siulp. "I tell young people to always believe in themselves and in the values of legality".