Former “super cop” Carmine Gallo arrested for involvement in cybercrime

They say that to this day he keeps secret how Alessandra Sgarella, who was kidnapped by the ‘Ndrangheta in the late 1990s for nine months, was liberated. As a “super cop”, one of those who, more than thirty years ago, were on the front line in the most important operations against the Calabrian mafia in Lombardy, shoulder to shoulder with the most persistent judges, Carmine Gallo, 65, was placed under house arrest yesterday afternoon . The charge is serious: a criminal association aimed at unauthorized access to computer systems. According to the indictment brought by the DDA in Milan, recognized by the investigating judge, he allegedly outlined “operational strategies” and planned “illegal activities” of a group of hackers, IT consultants and law enforcement officers who allegedly prepared a dossier and paid and commission reports, especially with economic world, using secret information from national strategic databases. There were also irregularities in the past when he took part in proceedings for disclosing official secrets and aiding and abetting. In 2008, while serving in the Milan Mobile Squad, he allegedly leaked secret information and favored a former money launderer working for Calabrian clans. In the past, Gallo was involved, among dozens of investigations, in solving the murder of Maurizio Gucci. From 2019 to 2019, as CEO of Equalize srl, the investigative firm of Enrico Pazzali, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, allegedly used his past “relationships and knowledge” to create an impressive dataset. And it was he who, according to the files, always looked for “clients” and managed relationships with them, and also directly dealt with “illegal wiretapping”. The former police inspector’s first client, although according to the records he did not have to pay, would be Pazzali himself. In a 2022 wiretap, the former policeman “comments” on “the number of reports he had to prepare to meet Pazzali’s personal needs.” He talks about “thousands” of documentation. Although last year this paid activity would have earned the group “hundreds of thousands of euros”. According to the investigating judge, Pazzali would have handed over the “entire operation” of Equalize Gallo, Calamucci, Camponovo and Cornelli, the four who were later arrested, and would therefore “have been dependent on them”, “even to be able to benefit, himself, in first of all, use the company’s services and obtain information about people who interest him. In fact, Gallo and others also pursued a “real strategy” to take him down.