Weapons cache found in judge’s cellar

Arms trafficking suspected in Italian probe

• An Italian judge who has been accused of taking bribes to free mobsters from jail is also at the centre of an arms trafficking inquiry after allegedly amassing illegal military-grade weapons.

A new arrest warrant was issued for Giuseppe De Benedictis, after police found one of the largest private stashes of weapons ever confiscated in Italy.

The Bari judge was already facing corruption charges after police bugged gangsters as they bragged about buying him for €30,000 ($44,000).

Italy is currently reckoning with the ongoing influence of organized crime in a mafia “super-trial” in which more than 350 alleged mobsters and their collaborators will face justice. It is the biggest mafia trial since the 1980s.

The arsenal was hidden beneath a rural farmhouse among the olive and almond groves north of Bari. When police lifted the cellar’s heavy iron lid, which had been soldered shut, they discovered nearly 200 weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles, AR15S, UZI, Socimi and Beretta machine guns, pump-action shotguns, CZ and other semi-automatic pistols, hand grenades, 100,000 rounds of ammunition and even an anti-tank mine.

Anti-mafia authorities are now investigating whether some equipment may have been stolen from the Italian army to be sold on the black market.

Prosecutors believe De Benedictis and an Italian army officer may have been helping organized crime gangs move illegal arms through the port city of Bari. However, the judge maintains the collection was just a side hobby.

A known, passionate collector of rare and antique guns, he reportedly told authorities that he had dumped any questionable weapons into the Adriatic Sea. However, police continued to search for the cache, following leads from the wiretapped conversations.

According to Lecce prosecutors and the 40-page arrest warrant issued by investigating magistrate Guilia Proto, De Benedictis was allegedly recorded in conversation with an Italian army official in Bari, Cpl.-maj. Antonio Serafino, over how to procure arms and where to hide them.

The arrest warrant issued this week charged the farmhouse owner, Cpl.-maj. Serafino, and De Benedictis with illegal arms dealing. It referred to them as “authentic traffickers of weapons of war” which they deny.

Prosecutors are trying to verify the provenance of the arms to determine if they may have been the property of the Italian army.