Rome: Anti-Mafia Unit arrests for drug trafficking, including former Magliana gang leader Pernasetti

Rome, 15 April (LaPresse) – A major operation led by the investigative unit of the Carabinieri’s Rome Provincial Command has been underway since dawn this morning. Thirteen people have been arrested, including, according to information gathered by LaPresse, the former leader of the Banda della Magliana, Raffaele Pernasetti, aged 75 and nicknamed ‘er Palletta’, now a chef at the restaurant ‘Oio A Casa Mia’ owned by his brother in the Testaccio district. As part of this operation, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, the following individuals were also arrested and imprisoned: Manuel Severa (already in prison for the murder of Cristiano Molè at Corviale on 15 January 2024 – ed.), Manolo Bardeglinu, Alessandro De Angelis, Claudio Di Lodovico, Simone Di Matteo, Danilo Livi, Fabrizio Marinucci and Daniele Medori. Daria Di Silvestro, Manuel Peccia, Fabiola and Damiano Piacenti have been placed under house arrest. Among the suspects still at large is also Alessandro Capriotti, nicknamed ‘the Billionaire’ or ‘the Baker’, whose name emerged in the investigation into the murder of Fabrizio Piscitelli, alias ‘Diabolik’, the former leader of Lazio’s Irriducibili, killed in the Aqueducts Park in August 2019, as well as Alessandro Corvesi, the former Lazio Primavera player who, following his arrest for drug trafficking, sought to kill the two magistrates investigating him. According to the Carabinieri’s reconstruction of events, Raffaele Pernasetti acted, within the dismantled organisation, as a broker and intermediary for the purchase of large quantities of cocaine. The headquarters where meetings with members of the association took place was, it appears, his brother’s restaurant in Testaccio. He is charged with criminal association for the purpose of drug trafficking, the supply and possession of narcotics with intent to sell, the illegal possession and carrying of weapons and military ammunition, handling stolen goods, grievous bodily harm, extortion, attempted robbery and attempted murder, some of these charges being aggravated by the fact that he acted using mafia-style methods.