Giovanni Melluso

Giovanni Melluso (born 1959) was an Italian criminal and alleged associate of the Milanese crime boss, Francis Turatello, who later became a significant informant against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), a Camorra organization in Naples. He would be used by the Italian Justice Department to testify about the NCO's show business connections in Northern Italy, during the three-year-long Maxi Trial which began in 1983. However, many of his accusations were later proven to be unfounded.

He is particularly infamous for the frame-up of the popular Italian talk show host, Enzo Tortora, whom he falsely accused of Cocaine trafficking and NCO membership. Melluso was known by his multiple nicknames, "Gianni il Bello", or "Cha-cha-cha", both of which meant "beautiful" (the latter expression having that meaning in the Italian slang of the time).

A native of Sicily, Melluso had migrated to Milan at the age of 15 in 1974. It was during this time that he met Francis Turatello, the Italian crime boss of Milan. According to Melluso, Turatello had asked him to become a member of his organization. Melluso refused, only accepting work as an outside contractor dealing cocaine in the show-business world. Melluso rounded up the activity of drug dealer for Turatello, by working as a pimp and occasionally committing petty burglaries. During this period, he also adopted numerous false identities including Michele Tiano, Sante Breguglio, Mario Dalleri, Giuseppe Montalbano, Vincenzo Campo, and Paolo Belvisi. Melluso chose to operate in the Italian Riviera, and had a smooth operation running until the end of 1978, when he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.

After six years of rigorous imprisonment, Melluso decided to become a pentito. On March 2, 1984, when the preliminary hearings of the trial against the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO) were already in motion, he asked to be transferred from his prison cell to the Carabinieri barracks. There, he declared to an investigating magistrate of his decision to change his life because he was tired of the prison conditions and also because one of his former associates, Andrea Villa, had already decided to collaborate and had involved Melluso in his testimony. In the long run, Melluso wanted a reduction of his prison sentence, in exchange for his testimony.

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