Giuseppe Guttadauro

Giuseppe Guttadauro (born 18 August 1948) is an Italian Mafia boss and a high-profile surgeon from the Rocella neighbourhood in Palermo. Born in Bagheria, in the province of Palermo, he became the regent of Brancaccio's mandamento after the arrest and subsequent incarceration of the Mafia boss Gaspare Spatuzza in 1998.

Ruling Brancaccio According to Antonino Giuffrè, a pentito collaborating with the state, Guttadauro was an ally of Bernardo Provenzano in his attempts to reverse his former ally Totò Riina’s strategy of violence against the Italian state. “To initiate the process of remodeling the image of Cosa Nostra,” Giuffrè explained, “Guttadauro made contacts in business and started a debate on how best to apply peacefully the process of silent reconstruction of Cosa Nostra.”

Guttadauro’s grand Palermo villa served as a meeting point for both mafiosi and the people that counted in public life. According to prosecutor Roberto Scarpinato: “… first of all members of the military Mafia would come to receive instructions regarding protection rackets, drug trafficking, and other crimes. Then, almost as if Guttadauro was doing a double shift, members of the city’s bourgeoisie would arrive, including doctors, lawyers, and politicians. These would fine-tune regional and national political strategies that were invariably designed to subjugate public institutions to the predatory interests of the friends of friends. This was achieved by bloodless, but effective, methods involving financial backing and collective resources of every type.”

Guttadauro also had business acumen. He planned the vast development of a shopping centre and multiplex in Brancaccio, selling his own land, but making sure he would be the guarantor for protection of the site. This way he could guarantee the employment of a significant amount of mafiosi.

Police had bugged Guttadauro’s apartment and he was overheard discussing political appointments with the city's public health councillor Domenico Miceli, himself a doctor. (Miceli was sentenced to eight years for mafia association in December 2006) Guttadauro learned that his home was being "bugged" from another doctor. The colleague alleged that he, in turn, had been tipped off by the President of the Sicilian region Salvatore Cuffaro.

The inquiry set up to trace the origin of leaks during an investigation into Guttadauro led to the questioning of Cuffaro by the Palermo prosecuting office, and in September 2004 to an indictment charging Cuffaro with aiding and abetting the Mafia. On 15 October 2007, the prosecution requested eight years' imprisonment for Cuffaro for passing confidential information to the so-called moles in the Palermo Antimafia directorate. Cuffaro was sentenced to seven years in prison for favouring the Mafia.

Conviction and release Guttadauro was sentenced to 13 years and four months. He was released on 2 March 2012, receiving a reduction of 800 days of his sentence for good behaviour.

2022 arrest In February 2022, the Italian police arrested Giuseppe Guttadauro, who was placed under house arrest, and his son Mario Carlo, who ended up in prison. They are accused of mafia-type association.