from Cesare Giuzzi
The leaders of the arbitration association on the case of Rosario D’Onofrio, in prison accused of being a drug trafficker: “The Hague has no investigative powers to carry out a work of verification and control of what is declared by the associates”
In encrypted chats they called him “Rambo”. Because during the toughest phases of the lockdown, Rosario D’Onofrio toured half of Lombardy in “camouflage” to deliver kilos of hashish and marijuana and collect thousands of euros to send to Spain. But in addition to the double life of a drug trafficker and a military man, D’Onofrio had a third one. That from chief prosecutor of The Hague, the Italian association of arbitrators. Now that’s it in prison on international drug trafficking charges in a maxi operation by the Milanese Guardia di Finanza that led to 42 precautionary measures on Thursday, the 42-year-old from Garbagnate Milanese – with no little embarrassment on the part of the referees’ body – was removed from office. “I am disconcerted, I immediately asked President Trentalange for a reply on how to select the prosecutor”, the words of the president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina. The Hague speaks of “a betrayal that has seriously damaged the image of the entire Association”.
D’Onofrio had been promoted to national chief prosecutor while he was under house arrest after being arrested in May 2020 with 44 pounds of marijuana. “The Hague has no investigative powers to carry out a work of verification and control of what is declared by the associates – explain the top of the referees -. We would like to remind you that to take up the position of arbitrator, the interested party must declare the absence of criminal proceedings as well as sentences of more than one year for intentional offenses “.
In the “Madera” investigation coordinated by prosecutors Rosario Ferracane and Sara Ombra of the Milan District Anti-Mafia Directorate, in reality, the role of “disciplinary judge of arbitrators” does not emerge, also because D’Onofrio is accused of facts dating back to the period between December 2019 and May 20, 2020, when he was arrested red-handed by financiers with a load of 44 kilos of marijuana. He ends up in prison until September 16, 2020, then two years under house arrest. On the criminal front, the case ends with an abbreviated sentence of 2 years and 8 months and a fine of 6,000 euros. But it is precisely while he is under house arrest that D’Onofrio is promoted to “chief prosecutor of The Hague”. A modest career as a referee in the minor leagues, then from 2013 he had held the role of prosecutor in Lombardy – dealing with local designations and disciplinary proceedings – until the big leap of 2021 when he was called to Rome for the prestigious position.
«It was not a paid activity, we are talking about a few hundred euros in reimbursements for travel expenses when he attended meetings in Rome, ”explains defender Niccolò Vecchioni. The lawyer had handled the applications to the Court to authorize him to travel to Rome in The Hague. D’Onofrio’s role in the investigation is mainly linked to his military career. He pretended to be a medical officer but in reality he hadn’t finished his studies. He lived in Campania and when he was discovered, a complaint was made for usurpation of title (a matter closed with probation) and suspension. This is why on March 25, 2020, in full lockdown, he contacts a “fellow soldier” to borrow a “camouflage service uniform”. With his uniform he bypassed “police checks because of his military status,” as the investigating judge Massimo Baraldo writes. In the trunk of his Volvo SUV, kilos of hashish and marijuana.
His cell phone was encrypted and in the interceptions it was said that “he should have obtained a gun”. Among the various charges of drug deliveries, having participated in the beating of a “courier” suspected of having stolen 100 thousand euros, but also of having collected thousands of euros and having delivered them to a Chinese launderer in Chinatown in Milan which then turned them to narcos in Spain. In one case there is talk of 182,700 euros in cash. Rambo’s compensation? Three hundred euros. On April 1, 2020, after being stopped in a check, he telephones his partner and boasts: «Oh, the local police just stopped me. He saw me in uniform, the badge, greeted me militarily and said: “no, no, thank you … have a nice day!”.
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