Bari, they secured the vote with 50 euros. The newly elected Mayor and the municipal councilors of Triggiano were also searched

Bari, in the morning, beyond 50 Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Bari they are engaged in dozens of house searches, on behalf of the Public Prosecutor's Office, following an investigation which made it possible to reveal the infamous agreement put in place, on the occasion of the electoral consultations recently held in the province of Bari, to direct the vote of numerous voters, in exchange for money. Among the people subjected to house search, mayor – newly elected – of Triggiano, Donatelli Antonio, Neapolitan municipal councilors Angela e Fortunato Antonio, as well as Cataldo Alessandro, believed by the investigators deus ex machina of the proven system for “buy votes”, created during the last elections.

Le investigations, conducted by the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit and the Criminal Police Section of Bari, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bari, began when the Public Prosecutors became aware of theexistence of a mechanism, which would have been designed and built in the last few years electoral campaigns from the “creator” of the political movement”South to Center", in order to channel the vote, upon payment of money, of several voters in favor of supported candidates. The political party had already been at the center of a previous investigation, which was closed last February, which involved it 50 people for electoral corruption following the 2019 administrative elections, when he was elected to The Municipality of Bari, running on the same list, De Giosa Carlo, believed to be close to the regional councilor for Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Anna Maurodinoia (not under investigation).

The investigative activity came to life as the deadline approached administrative elections held in five municipalities of the metropolitan area of ​​Bari, between 3 and 4 October 2021. The attention of the investigators was focused on Triggiano, municipality of residence of Cataldo, believing that the latter, just as he had shown that he was working hard to bring the outgoing Mayor to re-election, could also achieve the objective throughpolluting the vote, that is, adopting that system of electoral corruption that the Judiciary and the Carabinieri had already "heard about". In fact, the investigations made it possible to document how a network of "gregarious” to identify and contact Triggiano citizens willing to give their vote to the supported candidate in exchange for €50,00 per vote.

What was found by the Carabinieri on the evening of was extremely precious 6 October in an undifferentiated collection road bin, located in a dark and isolated square in San Giorgio, where Cataldo's trusted collaborators had fleetingly and clandestinely proposed to get rid of, as promptly found, study material deemed "uncomfortable” because it comes from activities related to the just concluded electoral campaign, which fragments of photocopies of identity documents and tax codes of citizens of Triggiano, manuscripts also reporting the name of people and their contact details, personal documentation of Sandro Cataldo and Anna Maurodinoia, a substantial number of billboards, sample of cards e electioneering flyers relating to the administrative consultations just held in the municipality of Triggiano and relating to the candidates of the "Triggiano al Centro" and "CON Donatelli Sindaco" lists.