An ambulance nurse suspected of killing terminally ill patients in return for bribes from Mafia-controlled funeral agencies has been arrested in Sicily, Italy, on triple murder charges.

The “ambulance of death” case was reported by Italian media on Friday.

The nurse, 42-year-old Davide Garofalo, was arrested on Thursday.

Prosecutors accused him of killing three people, aged between 90 and 55, between 2014 and 2016, and suspect he may have had a role in more than 50 other cases.

When patients at a hospital near the city of Catania were judged too ill to receive further treatment, Garofalo’s ambulance would take them home to die.

He would speed up the process by injecting them with empty syringes causing fatal air embolisms, according to investigators.

Police said Garofalo would then direct grieving relatives to a funeral agency that would pay him about 300 euros (355 dollars) for the service.

The man, who had two accomplices who are under investigation but have not been arrested, “acted out of profit, for money, with total disregard for human life and dignity,” prosecutor Francesco Puleio said.

“If they really did this, they are cowards, you do not kill a person for 300 euros,” Giuseppe Gioco, the son-in-law of one of the victims, told RAI public radio on Friday.

Garofalo was said to have been linked to a Mafia syndicate who controlled the local funeral business.

His alleged crimes were first revealed by an anonymous witness who spoke to Le Iene, a TV programme, in May.