[3] On 4 April 2005, he won the election as president of his native Abruzzo as candidate for centre-left coalition The Union,[4] and on 1 May resigned his seat in the European Parliament to take up this post.

In 2007, he founded the Reformist Alliance (Italian: Alleanza Riformista) movement within the SDI,[5][6] with which he left the SDI and became a member of the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD) at the PD's founding congress on 14 October 2007.

[9] On 14 July 2008, Del Turco was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a €12.8 million fraud in the financing of the public health system of his region.

[2][10] Del Turco was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for his involvement in the exchange of health sector bribes.

In addition to the jail term, he was ordered to pay more than €3 million in damages and given a lifetime ban on holding public office.