“Wait, wait Ma… you broke my bones.” It is the voice of Graziano Mesina that in the early afternoon of November 16, 2021 comes out of the hood of the car driven by Mario Floris, in charge of transferring the fugitive from the place where he was hiding in the Bono countryside to Desulo, where he will then be captured. For the first time, the ROS carabinieri "hooked" with certainty Grazianeddu, who had been on the run since 2 July 2020. The certainty of being on the right path, taken by placing one after the other the clues left by Nicolò Cossu (known as Cioccolato) and by the bandit's nephew, Tonino Crissantu, believed by investigators to be those who organized and managed the escape of the former Scarlet Pimpernel of Supramonte in all those months, which occurred that day. Contact with the gang was never abandoned again, within a month they acquired associates and supporters, until their capture on the night between 17 and 18 December.
Inside the hood
Mesina seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The investigations immediately focused on the people closest to him but soon also became intertwined with the doctor Tomaso Gerolamo Cocco, who, through Cossu and Crissantu, was interested in favoring a journalist, Giuliana Adamo, who wanted to interview the fugitive to write a book on banditry on the island.
The boss and the doctor
Cocco had also proposed to make a prison incompatibility report for Mesina, immediately after the death of the sisters from Covid. But his contacts with Crissantu and Cossu made it possible to capture the fugitive. According to the investigators, Mesina is considered a real boss, a clan leader, so much so that those who helped him face the aggravating circumstance of mafia facilitation.
The hideouts
One of the hideouts identified is Bono's sheepfold led by Antonio Fadda, from which Mesina was transferred on 16 December to reach Desulo. The pick up and drop off is in the morning, Floris is together with Marteddu. From that moment on, the former Scarlet Pimpernel was entrusted to the Desulians. The first hideout is in a house in Via Roma owned by Giuseppe Paolo Frongia, where Mesina remains until December 14th. At the home of Antioco Gioi and Basilia Puddu, where Mesina will be arrested, he arrives only four days before the blitz, helped by Raffaele, Anna and Salvatore Gioi.
Fabio Ledda
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