AC Milan, Inter ultras arrested for alleged organized crime offences

MILAN, Sept 30 – Hardline supporters of AC Milan and Inter Milan were arrested on Monday for alleged organized crime offences, Italian police said.

In a statement, Italy’s financial police said leading figures from the “ultras” of two of the country’s most important football clubs had been arrested for “criminal conspiracy aggravated by mafia methods, extortion, assault and other serious crimes.”

“The suspects are almost all members of the ultra groups of the Milan teams, while the crimes are related to football income,” the financial police said.

A police source told AFP that a total of 19 people had been arrested, including the two heads of Inter and Milan ultras, Luca Lucci and Renato Bossetti.

Monday’s arrests come a few weeks after the alleged heir to a powerful crime family was murdered by one of Bossetti’s predecessors.

Andrea Beretta, who has a long criminal record herself, stabbed Antonio Bellocco to death early this month during an altercation outside a boxing gym in a Milan suburb.

Bellocco’s death was a shock due to his reportedly high status within the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which led to Beretta’s family being placed under special surveillance by police for fear of violent reprisals.

It also raised suspicions that mafia gangs were infiltrating ultra groups, attracted by the income some supporters’ organizations would earn from illegal activities ranging from ticket selling to drug dealing.

Beretta played a leading role in the Curva Nord section of San Siro after career criminal Vittorio Boiocchi was shot dead outside his home in October 2022.

Italian media widely reported at the time of his assassination at the age of 69 that Boiocchi had bragged in wiretapped conversations about earning €80,000 (RM370,000) a month through his position as ultra-leader. —AFP