On May 31, 1985, Rotolo was arrested together with Giuseppe Calò in the latter's elegant villa near Rome. He was one of the defendants at the Maxi Trial against Cosa Nostra that started in 1986. According to Francesco Marino Mannoia, who became a pentito, Rotolo was one of the killers of Piersanti Mattarella, the regional president of Sicily at the time. He was also a member of the hit team that killed the prefect of Palermo, general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, according to the pentito Calogero Ganci.