Sicily man arrested for triple murder in "ambulance of death" mafia case

ROME, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- An ambulance stretcher-bearer has been arrested for killing at least three terminal patients and then "selling" their bodies to funeral parlors, local media reported Thursday.

The man from Sicily faces charges of murder aggravated by aiding and abetting the mafia in the so-called "ambulance of death" investigation, which has looked into more than 50 suspicious deaths that took place between 2012 and 2016, according to ANSA news agency.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania say the suspect worked for a local mafia clan, killing terminally ill people and then steering their bodies to funeral parlors with links to organized crime. In return, he got 300 euros per body (355.9 U.S. dollars), according to the prosecution.

The suspect, named as Davide Garofalo, 42, allegedly killed three people between 2014 and 2016 by injecting air into their bloodstream.

The victims are an elderly man and woman, and a 55-year-old man, according to La Repubblica newspaper. They had been dismissed from a hospital in the town of Biancavilla in Catania Province so that they could die among loved ones at home.

Two more stretcher-bearers are under investigation for similar incidents, according to ANSA news agency. "The patients didn't die by the hand of god -- we made them die, and that way we earned 300 euros instead of 30," an anonymous witness told a reporter from satirical TV show Le Iene (Reservoir Dogs) in an episode posted online that aired in May this year.

In the episode, the witness said "the (mafia) bosses put their men on the ambulance" and the money from the murders "went to the organization" through offering funeral services to the families of the victims. The witness subsequently turned to prosecutors and testified, ANSA reported. Enditem