Giovanni Melluso

Giovanni Melluso (born 1956) is an Italian criminal. He became a significant informant against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), a Camorra organization in Naples. He would be used by the Italian Justice Department to testify about the NCO's show business connections in Northern Italy, during the three-year-long Maxi Trial which began in 1983. However, many of his accusations were later proven to be unfounded. Tortora was detained for 7 months before being cleared of all the charges by a court of cassation 4 years later in 1987. He developed cancer and died 1 year after the case was finally solved, some say because of the emotional stress of his imprisonment.

Testimony against other associates In March, 1984, the Investigation Office of the Tribunal of Naples gave the Prosecution office of Milan, a copy of the statements made by Melluso concerning the alleged drug dealing activity of Walter Chiari, Patrizia Caselli and Antonino Cusumano. Melluso had made accusations against these people that were remarkably similar to those concerning Tortora: purchase and sale of considerable quantities of cocaine, giving a detailed account of the encounters with the two actors. On July 19, 1986, the investigating judge acquitted the three accused.

He motivated the sentence as follows: "The enquiry has proved in a clear and evident way that the accusation is groundless. Melluso is deliberately lying when he accuses the above mentioned persons". Secondly, the preventive assiduity with other collaborators of the justice appears highly suspect, for the reasonable possibility of there being a mutual influence, and in the specific circumstance made evident by the fact that the first input to the investigation was provided precisely by that Andrea Villa whom Melluso refers to explain the reasons for his decision to cooperate with the justice."