Six-hundred nazi infiltrators in Genoa: Ex-chief of Genoa police confirms

By Wu Ming, Saturday 1 September 2001 (Modified on 11:36pm Sat Sep 1 ’01)

Mr. Colucci interrogation by the parliamentary committe investigating violence in Genoa casts new light upon nazi infiltrations

>From Il Secolo XIX (Genoa daily paper), saturday 1 September 2001:
>EX-CHIEF OF POLICE COLUCCI SAYS: 600 NAZI INFILTRATORS WERE IN GENOA

He confirmed the same news he had denied one month ago.

Camouflaged neo-nazis among the peaceful protesters of the Genoa Social Forum. Yet another resounding revelation, including even a precise figure: six-hundred infiltrators. The former Questore [local chief of police] Colucci (whom the Ministry of Internal Affairs sacked after the July 20-21 riots) stated this during the 7-hour long interview in front of the Parliamentary Committee investigating G8-related events. This officialy confirms the presence of groups of far-rightist provocateurs. The GSF had given the alarm in the days of the demonstrations. Even ten days before the summit, Il Secolo XIX had published confidential police files on potential infiltrations.

For the first time Colucci was explicit about neonazis. He answered a question by PRC [communist] congresswoman Graziella Mascia: You received intelligence reports on ultra-right groups planning to join the demonstrations, why did you not stop them?. The former chief of police said: As far as I know the six-hundred ultra-right infiltrators did not take part to violent action on the territory. Those few words, six hundred ultra-right infiltrators, open our eyes to a wider landscape. The previous report on the movement’s street action, which Colucci himself delivered to the officers in charge, contained no such reference. The report is dated July 12th, and the Committee has cited it several times. Not only it provided the police with the exact number of Black Bloc activists coming to town (there is a reference to 500 Britons): it also went: Some Turin members of Forza Nuova [the most popular Italian Neo-fascist party, t.n.] will form groups of 25-30 trustworthy militants in order to infiltrate the so-called White Overalls. These groups will attack the police with cold steel and discredit the left-wing.

Never the less, on July 25th Colucci himself turned down dozens of eye-witness accounts on the presence of nazis, right-wing skinheads and hooligans. He said: There is absolutely no evidence that far-rightists infiltrated the demonstrations. That report was prior to the G8 summit and was about _potential_ risks such as infiltrations. Nothing like that actually took place.

Official denials were sent out by ultra-right groups Forza Nuova and Fronte Nazionale. And yet Biagio Cacciola, leader of neo-fascist FUAN, had admitted that 300 of our boys were in the streets of Genoa. And yet free-lance journalist Mauro Bocci had interviewed and photographed a young British nazi in the Black Bloc, nicknamed Doggy, who told him: I don’t give a shit about the G8, our Italian brothers invited us and we came!. Moreover, during the demonstrations a social worker from Emilia-Romagna told Vittorio Agnoletto [spokesperson of the GSF, t.n.] she had seen some of the people she assisted (belonging to neo-fascist groups) on two coaches along with their fellows. According to the GSF, sixty of them camped at Valbisagno (where most Black Blocsters camped too). Some WWF members spotted a group of AC Inter tifosi approaching a demo. They wore fascist ornaments on their jackets, such as swastikas, celtic crosses etc.

However, the most incredible news came from the Bolzaneto police station: the photocameras of two German men under arrest, who were charged with being part of the Black Bloc and are still in jail, contained films with pictures of the Genoa riots and... pictures of Nazi rallies recently occurred in Germany.

Graziella Mascia said: I asked Colucci why he did not warned the GSF about the presence of nazi infiltrators. He replied that that was not his duty. Now it is clear that he certainly underestimated the danger, either purposefully or not. Nobody was interested in protecting the citizens who were going to demonstrate. They only thought of the Red Zone.