Carmelo Vetro, the shadow of mafia and Freemasonry over contracts in Sicily and the "borderline" relations with Salvatore Iacolino

At the center of the investigation by the Palermo Prosecutor's Office that has overwhelmed the leadership of the regional health system, led by Salvatore Iacolino, emerges the figure of Carmelo Vetro, identified by investigators as the core of a dangerous intertwining between organized crime, white-collar workers, and high institutional spheres.

In the search warrant, Vetro is formally framed as a "man of honor" of the mafia family of Favara (Agrigento), already the recipient of a final conviction for mafia-type association. His significance, the documents emphasize, does not only depend on the illicit conduct attributed to him but also on a heavy family legacy: his father was reportedly a "top mafia figure in the Agrigento province". Precisely because of his past and the personal and asset prevention measures to which he is subjected, Vetro should have been absolutely barred from accessing authorizations, contracts, and public concessions.

What makes Vetro the emblem of an "evolved" mafia, capable of infiltrating the vital arteries of the economy, is – according to investigators – his "long-standing and current membership in Freemasonry". This affiliation, described in the documents as a "bond among the most diverse components of society", would have allowed him to weave and consolidate cross-cutting relationships, well beyond the traditional criminal perimeter.

Despite the anti-mafia prohibitions, Vetro would have continued to manage his economic interests through companies effectively traceable to him, such as "Ansa Ambiente". To circumvent controls, he would have exploited the "total availability" of then-general manager Salvatore Iacolino, used as a link to establish and strengthen contacts with key figures in the administration in the health and public works sectors. Through this channel, Vetro would have also promoted the interests of entrepreneurs close to him and directly reported, including Giovanni Aveni, linked to the management of Arcobaleno s.r.l.

According to the indictment, Vetro's power relied on a well-oiled corrupt mechanism. On one hand, the financing of election campaigns for complicit political figures: a circumstance that would emerge from wiretaps in which Vetro himself claims previous payments made to Iacolino. On the other hand, the use of his own companies to please institutional contacts, offering public officials the opportunity to indicate workers to be hired in his firms. This scheme, which in one case sees the deputy Grasso as a "protagonist," would have allowed politics to distribute jobs, fueling a clientelist circuit that enslaved institutions and deeply polluted public administration.