The lawyer Antonio Ingroia was born in Palermo on March 31st, 1959. He graduated in Law from the University of Palermo with a score of 110 cum laude with a thesis on Criminal Law in regards to the Mafia. This won himthe Special Prize of the Gramsci Siciliano in 1986, awarded for being the best thesis written on the Mafia at that time. He then started working with various law journals, such as: Il ForoItaliano(The Italian Forum) andGiuriprudenzaCostituzionale(Constitutional Law). In 1987, he won a public examination in Judicial Law and thereafter began his apprenticeship in the Court of Palermo with Giovanni Falcone.
In 1989, he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor in Marsala, where he worked closely with Paolo Borsellino (at the time Chief Prosecutor in Marsala).In this Office, he was given responsibility for numerous criminal cases of significant sensitivity in several different areas but especiallywith the Mafia. He also worked alongside Borsellino in the acquisition of statements from important collaborators of justice, among the first in the Province of Trapani. In particular, he dealtboth nationally and internationally, with prosecutions for Murder, Mafia Murder, Mafia-Type Association, Extortion, Drug Trafficking (Heroin and Cocaine between Sicily and other regions of Italy, as well as various parts of the world, Asia, Africa and North America, Central and South America). He even dealt with criminal proceedings for robbery and extortion operated by local criminal organizations, various crimes against the public administration in some cases including convictions of localpublic administrators for serious crimes.
In 1992 he returned to his hometown and was appointed substitute Deputy Prosecutor of Palermo alongside Paolo Borsellino, shortly after he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor of Palermo. In April 1992 he was appointed to be a member of the District Anti-Mafia Prosecution of Palermo, and continued to work alongside Paolo Borsellino who was killed by the mafia on the 19th of July 1992. He remained in the anti-mafia pool of Palermo as a Substitute until 2009, this time dealing with numerous and complex criminal cases of organized crime: mainly prosecutions for Murder, Extortion, Kidnapping, Mafia-type association, Conspiracy of Drug Trafficking , conspiracy of Cigarette Smuggling, International Money Laundering of dirty money (also participating in numerous international investigations) and other serious crimes. Among the processes where he plays a significant role as PM, one should be mentioned in particular: the case of collusion with the Mafia of the Secret Service Manager: Bruno Contrada. He was arrested in December 1992 and sentenced in the final judgment to 10 years in prison, at the expense of the former Senator Marcello Dell ‘Utri, also then sentenced in the final judgment to 7 years in prison.
In 1993 Giuffre published his first book in theseries on Penal Law, entitled “Types of Mafia Associations”.In 1997 he spoke frequently about his pubblications “Types of Mafia Associations” and’ “Encyclopedia of the Law” . In the following years he has several essays and articlespublished and participates as a speaker in numerous conferences and seminars both nationally and internationally (USA, Germany, France, Spain , Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Slovenia, Macedonia).
In 1998 he was appointed by the Minister of Justice as a component of the Ministerial Commission for Consolidated Anti-MafiaLegislation.
In 2000 he published the essay “Criminal Associations and Organized Crime:The Italian experience” inserted in the collective “Organized crime as a transnational phenomenon.”
In 2001 Feltrinelli published “An uncomfortable Legacy. From Falcone to Andreotti. Seven years in Palermo”a book written together with Giancarlo Caselli.
Over the following years, he holds many theoretical lessonsfor the students of the Graduate School of the Judiciary of Palermo, on the problems of criminal prosecutions of organized crime as well as many Conferences. He also teaches in various faculties on degree courses at the University of Palermo, and other universities such as Pavia and Pisa and is involved with many other public bodies and organizations.
In particular, he worked as the Professor of Criminal Law on a specialization coursefor the legal profession, at the School “GioacchinoScaduto” from 2001 until 2009.
From 2004 to 2007 hetaughtas Professor of “Jurisprudence and IT” at the Link Campus University – Rome office.
In subsequent years, he deals with other major criminal cases, for example the investigation into the murders of Mafia journalists Mauro De Mauro and Mauro Rostagno, and many other cases of organized crime, of which he is a specialist.
For two consecutive two-year periods (2005/2007 and 2007/2009)he is appointed by the Council of the Judiciary District: Coordinator of the Decentralized Education Council of the Judiciary, a position in which he organizes numerous Conferences and Legal Seminars.
In 2005 he published “The Judicial Practice: between causal model and organizational model”inserted in the collective “The Criminal Enterprise: conceptual paradigmsand evidence.”
In 2006 he published “The Mafia: between Law and Politics”, entered in the collective “Mafia and Power.”
In 2007 he published “From the terror of the Massacres: the Anguish of Silence”, inserted in the collective“Massacresof Sicily”.
In May 2007 he was appointed as a Consultant to the Anti-Mafia Parliament.
In 2008 he was appointed Coordinator of the Department of “Economic Crime” for the Prosecutor of Palermo, the District Department of Counterterrorism in the same office and the Department of”Narcotics” of the District Anti-Mafia.
In 2009 he publishes “There was once public interception” and that same year he is appointed Deputy Prosecutor and Coordinator of the Anti-Mafia pool of Palermo. Between 2009 and 2012 he is involved in numerous investigations into the Pool of associates in the Public Prosecution’s Office . He co-ordinates many of the anti-Mafia prosecutions, including the famousinquiry into the “State-Mafia Negotiation”, in which not only the heads of Casa Nostra are charged and indicted, but also Former Ministers and High Officials of the Police and Secret Services.
In 2010 he publishes for Basic Books In the Labyrinth of the Gods: “ Mafia and Anti-Mafia Stories” and in 2012 publishes for Melampo“Palermo: the Splendors and the Miseries. The Heroism and the Cowardice.”
In July 2012 he was appointed by the United Nations Chief of the Investigations Department of the CICIG, supranational institution of investigation against organized crime that operates in Central America (Guatemala).
In the same year he publishes for Chiarelettere the book entitled “I know”, mainly devoted to his latest investigation on “State-Mafia Negotiation” written with journalists Giuseppe Lo Bianco and Sandra Rizza.
In July 2013 he resigned from the Judiciary and enrolled into the Bar Association of Rome where he began to practice as a Lawyer, defending especially mafia victims and those to whom justice has been denied.
In November 2013 he was appointed by the President of the Sicily Region Crocetta, Commissioner of the company: Sicily E-services, characterized by a recent management of “gossip”.
In February 2014 the same PresidentCrocetta appointed him Commissioner of the former Province of Trapani, which has now been dissolved.
Today Antonio Ingroia works as a Lawyer in his own Legal firm in Rome. He deals with many “thorny”, cases. In some cases, the cases have a direct connection with his past activities as a Prosecutor. In particular the civil defense of the family of Attilio Manca, a young doctor killed by the Mafia. The Prosecutor of Viterbo had hastily dismissed the case as a suicide case.