Giuseppe Guttadauro, 73, aka 'the Doctor', and his son Mario Carlo Guttadauro are “under investigation for mafia-type association as they are believed to belong to the Cosa Nostra family of Palermo - Roccella,” the carabinieri tweeted.
The arrests are “a severe blow to drug trafficking and to the Mafia,” said a statement issued by the administration of the town of Bagheria.
Guttadauro, the former chief of a Palermo hospital who moved to Rome, allegedly tried to organize a drug trafficking operation that would bring cocaine to Rotterdam and established contacts with an Albanian crime suspect and an Alitalia flight attendant who was supposed to carry cash to South America, local media reported.
Investigators played to the Court of Palermo numerous wiretaps in which Guttadauro talked about mafia affairs and drugs. He discussed with his son the “unloading of a hundred kilos a month in Rotterdam. “There are customs officers, who take 25 percent,” the doctor could be heard as saying, according to reports.
Nicknamed “the Doctor,” Guttadauro served as the head of the Civic Hospital of Palermo before he moved to Rome to continue to pursue his ties to the criminal world, according to local media.
Guttadauro allegedly intervened in mafia style on behalf of a rich woman from Rome in her dispute with UniCredit bank over 16 million euro (US$18.1 million). He allegedly threatened to use violence against anyone who would stand in her way.
Guttadauro, who was arrested for the first time 22 years ago also for Mafia association, has been put last week under house arrest while his son has been taken to a jail.
