Cancemi was involved in the murders of anti-mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992. He acted as a look-out for the team that placed and detonated the bomb at Capaci, which killed Falcone, his wife and three men of his escort. Cancemi described the victory celebration that followed the Capaci bombing. Totò Riina ordered Champagne and while the others toasted, Cancemi and another future pentito Santino Di Matteo looked at one another and exchanged a gloomy assessment of Riina and their future: "This cuckold will be the ruin of us all." Cancemi was sentenced to 21 years in prison in 1997.