Italian police on Tuesday raided the home of an ex-mayor of Rome in an anti-mafia sweep that also snared a one-eyed mobster who is one of the most notorious figures in Italy's recent history.
Former mayor Gianni Alemanno and the city's current anti-corruption chief Italo Walter Politano were among a group of around 100 people named as being under investigation in a probe into a criminal network that police said had become very powerful in the Italian capital.
They believe it was run by Massimo Carminati, who was given a ten-year prison term in 1998 for being part of the infamous Magliana crime gang, which wielded enormous influence in Rome in the 1970s and 1980s.
Carminati, who lost an eye in a shoot-out with police, has been described by local media as the "black soul" of the Roman underworld.
The 56-year-old is also a former member of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), a far-right group that was involved in the 1980 bombing of Bologna railway station which left 85 people dead.
Of the 100 people under investigation in Rome, 37 were arrested Tuesday with 29 detained in custody.
The suspects include businessmen and local politicians. They are suspected of mafia links, corruption, extortion and fraud.
Alemanno's residence was searched by officers seeking evidence of alleged rigging of large public contracts.
Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone told a press conference that Alemanno's position "has to be evaluated" while the right-wing politician, an ally of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, denied any wrongdoing.
"Those who know me, know that I have always openly fought mafia organisations and crime of every kind, with no leniency," said Alemanno, who served as Rome mayor from 2008-13 and was Italy's agriculture minister from 2001-06.
Police believe that as well as rigging contracts given out by municipal authorities, the mafia network also conspired to skim off cash from centres established to house asylum seekers and recently-arrived migrants.
Italy's much criticised camps to house ethnic Roma on the outskirts of Rome have been the subject of regular claims that money allocated to them is diverted into criminal hands.
Pignatone said he did not believe the criminal gang operating in Rome was linked to or comparable to the famous organised crime syndicates of southern Italy, such as Sicily's Cosa Nostra.
"We have identified the one that we call Mafia Capitale, which is Roman, without links to other southern mafias, but uses mafia methods," he said.
Others detained included Franco Panzironi, the former managing director of the city's refuse collection body AMA, while Daniele Ozzimo, the city's current head of housing, was among those named as being probed.
Ozzimo, a member of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), resigned his post.
Mirko Coratti, the president of the Rome council assembly, was also declared to be under investigation and quit declaring his innocence.
Anti-corruption supremo Politano, appointed by the current PD mayor Ignazio Marino, is expected to stand down on Wednesday.
Italian police on Tuesday raided the home of an ex-mayor of Rome in an anti-mafia sweep that also snared a one-eyed mobster who is one of the most notorious figures in Italy’s recent history.
Former mayor Gianni Alemanno and the city’s current anti-corruption chief Italo Walter Politano were among a group of around 100 people named as being under investigation in a probe into a criminal network that police said had become very powerful in the Italian capital.
They believe it was run by Massimo Carminati, who was given a ten-year prison term in 1998 for being part of the infamous Magliana crime gang, which wielded enormous influence in Rome in the 1970s and 1980s.
Carminati, who lost an eye in a shoot-out with police, has been described by local media as the “black soul” of the Roman underworld.
The 56-year-old is also a former member of the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei), a far-right group that was involved in the 1980 bombing of Bologna railway station which left 85 people dead.
Of the 100 people under investigation in Rome, 37 were arrested Tuesday with 29 detained in custody.
The suspects include businessmen and local politicians. They are suspected of mafia links, corruption, extortion and fraud.
Alemanno’s residence was searched by officers seeking evidence of alleged rigging of large public contracts.
Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone told a press conference that Alemanno’s position “has to be evaluated” while the right-wing politician, an ally of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, denied any wrongdoing.
“Those who know me, know that I have always openly fought mafia organisations and crime of every kind, with no leniency,” said Alemanno, who served as Rome mayor from 2008-13 and was Italy’s agriculture minister from 2001-06.
Police believe that as well as rigging contracts given out by municipal authorities, the mafia network also conspired to skim off cash from centres established to house asylum seekers and recently-arrived migrants.
Italy’s much criticised camps to house ethnic Roma on the outskirts of Rome have been the subject of regular claims that money allocated to them is diverted into criminal hands.
Pignatone said he did not believe the criminal gang operating in Rome was linked to or comparable to the famous organised crime syndicates of southern Italy, such as Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.
“We have identified the one that we call Mafia Capitale, which is Roman, without links to other southern mafias, but uses mafia methods,” he said.
Others detained included Franco Panzironi, the former managing director of the city’s refuse collection body AMA, while Daniele Ozzimo, the city’s current head of housing, was among those named as being probed.
Ozzimo, a member of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party (PD), resigned his post.
Mirko Coratti, the president of the Rome council assembly, was also declared to be under investigation and quit declaring his innocence.
Anti-corruption supremo Politano, appointed by the current PD mayor Ignazio Marino, is expected to stand down on Wednesday.
