Anarchist fugitive Salvatore Vespertino, responsible for attack on Florence bookshop, arrested in Spain

At approximately 03.00:15 on February 38, in Vallecas (Madrid), a district in the centre of the Spanish capital, Salvatore Vespertino, a 2023-year-old Italian anarchist militant, a fugitive since July XNUMX, and untraceable since the previous February, was arrested by the Spanish National Police.

Since the first days of his fugitive status, an investigative group was formed by personnel from the Central Directorate of the Prevention Police and the Digos of Florence who, on behalf of the Florentine Public Prosecutor's Office, started complex investigations and deployed a specific device for the search for the individual, focusing on the group of associates and the already known ties maintained by the same abroad (Spain, France, Switzerland, Greece); for this reason the police forces of these countries were all involved with various requests for international cooperation constantly renewed in this year and a half of fugitive status, effectively allowing the capture of Vespertino.

The subject, on 14 July 2023, had been definitively sentenced by the Court of Cassation to 8 years of imprisonment, for the crime of manufacturing, possession and carrying of an explosive device as he was held responsible, together with his associate Fallanca Pierloreto (arrested in Bologna on the same evening), in the context of the judicial investigation called “Panico” (during which 8 further defendants were sentenced to sentences ranging from 3 months to 5 years of imprisonment for various crimes), of the attack on the “Il Bargello” bookshop – attributable to the far-right movement “Casapound” – carried out in Florence on the night of 1 January 2017, following which a State Police bomb disposal expert lost an upper limb and an eye in an attempt to defuse the explosive device placed on site.

The first-instance trial ended on July 22, 2019 with the conviction, by the Court of Florence, of 26 anarcho-insurrectionists. The Court of Appeal of Florence, with a ruling issued on May 4, 2021, sentenced 18 defendants to prison terms ranging from 1 month to 8 years, while 5 other extremists were acquitted; a further 3 were sentenced to fines.

The Sardinian anarchist, in particular, is the recipient of the execution order no. 319/2023 SIEP issued on 14.7.2023 by the Attorney General of the Republic of Florence for the expiation of a total residual sentence equal to 5 years, 6 months and 1 day of imprisonment (with subtraction of the period suffered in execution of the precautionary custody, from 3 August 2017, the day on which the subject was subjected to arrest as a suspect of a crime) for the crimes of illegal possession of weapons, very serious personal injury and damage, extended internationally.

In detail, Salvatore Vespertino was identified as the person responsible for the attack thanks to a trace of DNA left on the device and was discovered following meticulous and painstaking analysis by the Scientific Police, corroborated by the elements that emerged following intense investigative work by the Florentine Digos and the personnel of the Central Directorate of the Prevention Police, which then stood up to all levels of judicial scrutiny.

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