Former Brenta crime boss Felice
Maniero has been given a new identity as part of his witness
protection program after his previous cover as Luca Mori became
public knowledge, his defence lawyer Orlando Iorio told ANSA on
Thursday.
The procedure lasted a while and was completed recently, said
Iorio.
On Monday, Maniero is set to appear under his previous name at
the hearing of a trial being held in Brescia in which he is
accused of hitting a plainclothes police officer during a fight.
Maniero led a mafia-style gang that ran rackets in the Brenta
area of Veneto in the 70s and 80s which he allowed police to
dismantle after confessing his crimes.
In 2023, Maniero, 70, finished serving a four-year prison term
for abusing his former partner Marta Bisello.
He is currently being monitored with an anti-stalking electronic
bracelet after allegedly hitting a woman who is a family member,
according to a report published by Venice daily Il Gazzettino on
Thursday.
Maniero was first jailed in 1995 for bank robbery, murder,
assault, assault of an officer, and grand theft auto.
During his time in jail he turned State's evidence against other
gangsters.
He was released in 2010 but rearrested on charges of mistreating
his partner in Brescia in October 2019.
Maniero was once one of Italy's most feared crime bosses,
outside traditional southern mafias including Calabria's
'Ndrangheta, Sicily's Cosa Nostra, Campania's Camorra and
Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita.
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