Luigi Finizio left his Rome home days ago and never came back. Around seven thirty in the evening, two men closed in at a nearby gas station in the Roman quarter of Quaternary. One man stepped off a motorcycle, opened fire, and Finizio fell. He died right there on a partly cloudy Monday in mid-March. Yet the broader story stretches beyond a single tragedy. The timing of Finizio’s murder echoes other recent deadly events in troubled neighborhoods across the Italian capital, giving rise to warnings of a rising murder wave.
The brazenness of many of these crimes, a level not seen in Rome for more than a decade, has sparked alarms. Elsewhere, Marco Channel, a man with a criminal record, was shot while asleep in his Roma neighborhood home in February—another brutal reminder in a city already on edge. And on the same Monday a 54-year-old, also with a long criminal history, was found dead in his apartment in the Torpignattara district after being shot. Investigators suspect possible links among these cases.
The Finizio case stands out not just for its violence but because the victim was a relatively unknown figure with ties to one of the Camorra’s most infamous clans in Campania. The ringleader’s family is connected to Finizio through a cousin, which adds a layer of intrigue to the murder. The execution itself underscores a grim professionalism: hooded gunmen completed the act in roughly ten seconds. Police sources interviewed by this newspaper say there is little doubt it was the work of professional hitmen.
land of conquest
The way these crimes were carried out prompted swift investigations that captured public interest, even though many details remained undisclosed. The newspaper Il Corriere della Sera reported that in the last six months alone around twenty murders have occurred in Rome, with numerous other violent incidents involving gunshot wounds or serious injuries. The overall pattern has fueled fears of a clan war taking shape in the capital.
Carabinieri Colonel Mario Conio, head of the DIA operations center in Rome, acknowledged the trend but urged caution, arguing that some interpretations rely too heavily on media narratives. He cautioned that a clearer picture is forming about the criminal landscape in the capital, noting that Rome remains a contested arena where no single group dominates.
Looking beyond the local scene, Conio pointed to the emergence of a network linked to Calabria’s Ndrangheta, a mafia faction considered among the most dangerous in the country. The anti-mafia unit has reported renewed activity in recent years, with a trial on these events expected to start soon. This development suggests a broader shift in organized crime dynamics that may involve new players and alliances in Rome.
headless tapes
Authorities have conducted multiple operations against criminal groups operating in Rome and against foreign networks, including Albanian networks involved in narcotics distribution. Law enforcement teams have also targeted the changing balance of power within the Casamonica network, a long-standing local family gang. Some observers wonder whether so many arrests point to a power vacuum that forces lower-ranked groups to seize control of lucrative markets.
Alfonso Sabella, a former Rome city council prosecutor, commented that powerful mafia figures who once controlled the city are now either arrested or weakened. A crime historian for Il Messaggero agrees that a power struggle is a plausible scenario, though investigators have yet to confirm any direct connections among the ongoing events.
The prevailing sentiment among experts is the presence of more drugs and guns on the streets, accompanied by a money-mueled urgency among criminals. Marani notes a troubling trend: an increase in kidnappings or attempts to close drug debt accounts, a development she describes as a distinctly new phenomenon for Rome.