1981
February 5, Padua
Enea Codotto, 25 years old, Carabiniere
Luigi Maronese, 23 years old, Carabiniere
At the Carabinieri command in Padua, a citizen calls to report a suspicious group of six individuals on the southeast outskirts of the city, along the embankment bordering the Scaricatore canal in the Bassanello district. One of them, wearing diving gear, is diving into the water.
A patrol led by Codotto is sent to the scene; Maronese is driving. Upon arrival, they catch the group still in action, retrieving a bag full of weapons, ammunition, and documents that had previously been hidden at the bottom of the Scaricatore. A firefight ensues: Codotto manages to wound one of the terrorists but is then fatally shot. His colleague Maronese is also killed.
The investigation identifies the members of the commando. They are the brothers Cristiano and Valerio “Giusva” Fioravanti (the latter wounded in the shootout, both later convicted as material authors of the Bologna station massacre of August 2 of the previous year), Francesca Mambro, Gilberto Cavallini, Giorgio Vale, and Gabriele De Francisci. These black terrorists belonged to the NAR, Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, a neo-fascist organization founded in Rome in 1977, which essentially ended its course with this bloody episode in Padua.
A year earlier, some members of the same group involved in the Scaricatore incident were also responsible for another notorious terrorist act in Padua: this time in the city center, at the Military District headquarters on Via Cesarotti, in front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony.
This occurred on Sunday, March 30, 1980, when a commando of seven people attacked the District: after tying up the four guards, the raiders seized the weapons stored there (four machine guns, five automatic rifles, pistols, and various ammunition) and shot Sergeant Gabriele Sisto in the leg. The Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) star was painted on the outside wall, but the attempt at misdirection was quickly uncovered: the commando actually included three prominent figures of the NAR black terrorism, Giusva (Giuseppe Valerio) Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro, and Gilberto Cavallini.