Extortion, drugs and weapons: 11 arrests between Rome, Viterbo and Frosinone

AGI – Eleven arrests for robbery, extortion, kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, money laundering, drug dealing were carried out in the provinces of Rome, Viterbo and Frosinone. During the raid, the carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Provincial Command of Rome and the agents of the State Police of the 1st District Trevi Campo Marzio executed the precautionary custody order ordered by the investigating judge at the request of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Rome prosecutor’s office.

The investigative activity, born in October 2022, originates from the complaints of a drug user who had accrued a debt with drug dealers that he was no longer able to honor, generating violent reactions from the latter. In particular, the investigation activity, which lasted over a year, made it possible to collect serious indications of guilt regarding the existence of a criminal group, operating in the Roman district of Cinecittà, of which the suspects would be part and to document how the latter used to carry out violent retaliation against defaulting drug buyers.

Circumstantial elements were collected according to which in some episodes the victims were transported to the homes of some associates where they were beaten and threatened with a gun pointed at their heads in order to force them to make payments, also through bank transfers. Sometimes, because the daily “ceiling” at the bank had been exhausted, they were seized and beaten all night long, waiting to be able to make other transfers the following morning. In cases where they were unable to obtain the requested money, the threats were also extended to the families of the unfortunate people. The analysis of flow of extorted money (over 300 thousand euros) made it possible to identify all the beneficiaries of the bank transfers in subjects believed to be close to the most authoritative person of the criminal group, Daniele Salvatori, and to document the activities aimed at reusing and laundering the money that came from the various current accounts, through further transfers or through cash withdrawal, transferred to other beneficiaries.

Salvatori, 47 years old, already known to the police, on 12 June 2023, the soldiers of the Investigative Unit of Rome had already notified an arrest of a crime suspect, issued by the DDA, for theextortion against a 36-year-old resident in the province of Frosinone and his family members. Confirming the dangerousness and unscrupulousness of the recipient of the restrictive measure, on 3 October 2022, Salvatori was arrested in flagrante delicto by the soldiers of the Radiomobile Section of Cassino (FR), as he was caught near the victims’ home in possession of a clandestine weapon.