FOGGIA - The Mayor of Foggia, Franco Landella, has been arrested for charges of corruption and attempted bribery. His wife, also a public official, and three local councillors have also been suspended and are under investigation.

  Landella, of the centre-right League, was put on house arrest following an investigation by the Squadra Mobile of the General Investigations and Special Operations Division (DIGOS) which revealed several instances of alleged corruption. 

  Luca Azzariti, an employee of ‘G-One’, a company applying for the contract to redevelop and upgrade the public lighting in Foggia, has covertly recorded a meeting in which Landella had asked for a bribe of 500,000 euros, which he then reduced to 300,000 euros, telling Azzariti he would otherwise throw the deal away.

  The contract for the redevelopment of Foggia’s public lighting was worth around 53 million euros and has been in the pipeline, without much progress, since 2016.

  The police investigation, led by the Deputy Commissioner Mario Grassia, also revealed how Landella had received 32,000 euros from a businessman name Paolo Tonti for the extension of an urban redevelopment project in which Tonti’s company was involved. Part of this sum also went to Landella’s wife, Daniela Di Donna.

  In the last month Landella’s house has been raided by police and telephones and other private belongings were sequestered. He said on Monday, “they have even sequestered my children’s piggy banks.”

  One of the sources for this investigation is Leonardo Iaccarino, the former President of Foggia’s municipal council, who was arrested in April for embezzlement and corruption. He was on Friday released from jail and put on house arrest, and is cooperating with the police in regards to the various counts of corruption with Foggia’s council. 

  Iaccarino also grabbed headlines when a video of him was shared in which he is seen firing a pistol from his balcony on New Year’s Eve. 

  The prosecutor Ludovico Vaccari, in a press conference following Landella’s arrest, explained that details of alleged instances of corruption were confirmed by reports from wiretapping and police surveillance, as well as statements made by Iaccarino.

  Vaccari described how Landella, and the other officials under investigation, had betrayed "the gift” given to them by the public. “Being a public administrator is a gift that you receive from voters so that public interests can be managed according to the law. These affairs bring to the light how the role has been bent for personal gains.”

  Foggia authorities, through a specially devised Commission, are also in the process of determining to what extent, if at all, the Società Foggiana - a powerful branch of the Apulian mafia - has infiltrated local government.

  The Commission’s investigations had begun on March 8 and preliminary results were meant to be delivered June 8, but given these recent discoveries of corruption even in the highest offices of local government, the Commission may be granted a three month extension.