According to the prosecutors, Valter Lavitola is believed to be the mastermind behind the attack on Ranucci

The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office is charging, amongst other things, the entrepreneur, journalist and former publisher Valter Lavitola with the offence of mass murder in connection with the attack on Sigfrido Ranucci in October last year. This is evident from the search warrant issued on 4 July by prosecutors at the Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) in Piazzale Clodio. According to the prosecutors, Lavitola is the instigator of the attack. He is charged with this offence in conjunction with members of the gang arrested last week and with Gomes Clesio Tavares, a 47-year-old Cameroonian national believed to be the intermediary between the businessman and the perpetrators. The document states that Lavitola allegedly instructed Clesio Tavares to “identify individuals capable of obtaining explosives and detonating them outside the journalist’s home” and that, on 16 September – one month before the attack – Lavitola allegedly carried out a site inspection with the 47-year-old “near the home” of the *Report* presenter. According to the search warrant, immediately after the attack on the journalist, Lavitola is said to have “arranged for the removal” from Italy of Clesio Tavares, who has been an employee since 2017 of the company Cefalù – linked to Lavitola – which runs a restaurant in the Monteverde Vecchio area of Rome. The businessman is also said to have provided legal assistance to the intermediary. According to the findings, Clesio Tavares is believed to still be in Cameroon. The warrant goes on to explain that Pellegrino D’Avino – one of the gang members – when served with the precautionary measure, allegedly told his father-in-law to “warn Clesio Tavares so that he in turn warns ‘that other bloke’”, presumably Lavitola. The entrepreneur’s mobile phones and computers have been seized and will now be analysed by investigators from the Via in Selci unit with the aim of substantiating the charges brought by the public prosecutors in Rome. On 30 June, the Carabinieri arrested the alleged perpetrators of the attack. The Carabinieri carried out four pre-trial detention orders for possession of explosives and causing damage, with the aggravating circumstance of using mafia methods.