Rosario D’Onofrio, The former chief prosecutor of the Italian Association of Arbitrators (AIA), was sentenced this Thursday by the Court of Milan to a sentence of 5 years and 8 months in prison for his involvement in an international drug trafficking plan between Spain and Italy.
In the first moment The Milan Prosecutor’s Office requested almost 8 years in prison, But his cooperation was key to the investigation, so mitigating circumstances were applied and his sentence reduced.
Arrested in November 2022
D’Onofrio, a former Italian army officer known as ‘Rambo’, then arrested in November 2022 within the framework of the investigation carried out by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) and the Milan Financial Guard, in which law enforcement agencies from Spain and the Netherlands also participated.
The detainees brought more than six tons of marijuana and hashish to the Italian region of Lombardy, whose capital is Milan, between 2019 and 2021, Italian law enforcement reported at the time. The drug trafficking route is between Italy and Spain.
The police operation
In the police operation, authorities seized almost half a ton of drugs and a thousand refills of electronic cigarettes based on cannabinoids, a chemical substance that causes effects similar to those produced by the Cannabis plant.
D’Onofrio He was part of the gang organized as a messenger -of drugs and money to launder it later- and as a logistics organizer to find the best places to deliver.
The condemned he took advantage of his uniform as a former military man to go unnoticed and deliver in 2020, even during confinement.
The conflict put, in 2022, in the spotlight Alfredo Trentalange, president of AIA at that time, accused by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) of not being interested in “knowing the true professional and moral intentions of Rosario D’Onofrio.”
The president of the referees resigned
The situation led to Trentalage’s resignation, who was sentenced by the FIGC Court in March 2023 to a 3-month disqualification, though he was soon acquitted after his appeal, in April 2023.
D’Onofrio has been part of the AIA since 2013, having been appointed by Trentalange as the person responsible for investigating possible irregularities by referees.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
