Police in Sicily She arrested a former gravedigger and investigates 18 other people accused of illegally removing bodies from the graves. The suspects were to perform these acts to make room for new corpses. Bribes were also at stake, which was referred to as “coffee for a gravedigger”.
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As “The Guardian” informs, A former gravedigger midfielder was also arrested As part of the investigation conducted since 2023 on alleged corruption and bribery in Trapani, on the west coast of the Italian island.
The police reported that they had banned operating to three funeral plants in the citywhose cemetery has been harassed in recent years with delays and complaints from the residents.
The police searched the house of a court pathologist who allegedly helped the gravedigger. According to “The Guardian”, the services believe that he falsely confirmed the decay of the corpse. On this basis, the people involved in the practice had grounds for preparing space for new bodies that were buried in their place.
The gravedigger removed the bodies from the graves for bribes. Scandal in Sicily
As “The Guardian” reports, in a situation where the gravedigger could not count on the cooperation of a court pathologist, he made decisions “about extraordinary exhumation procedures” in which the city's grave niches were cleaned of bodies so that they could be sold.
The police believe that a former employee took valuables such as gold jewelry, from the bodies of people who were to be buried.
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According to the Italian media accounts, which “The Guardian” refer to, The relatives of the dead were allegedly forced to pay the gravedigger in cash for accelerated burials. This fee was colloquially called “coffee for a gravedigger”, which suggested that in exchange for a favor it was necessary to pay an additional amount. The police revealed that no less than 25 cases of illegal burials were documented during the investigation.
The police determined that the city gravedigger hindered the external company management of service, instead directing the three fences with which he conspired to carry out burials, exhumation and transfer of remains, in exchange for a percentage of profit. The police are still investigating what happened to the deleted corpses.
