Five Milan local police officers arrested for illegal arrest, embezzlement and forgery

The arrests

At dawn on August 6, 2026, officers from the Radiomobile unit of Milan's local police arrested five of their own colleagues: commissaria Ilenja Sabato, the highest-ranking among them, and agents Mattia Rignanese, Denni Di Leo, Vincenzo Compagnone, and Rosario Piscopo. All five were taken to Milan's San Vittore prison. The charges, at varying degrees for each, are peculato (embezzlement), falso ideologico (ideological forgery), and arresto illegale (illegal arrest). The investigation was coordinated by prosecutor Giovanni Tarzia and delegated to the Radiomobile unit of the same local police force, making it an internal operation. Judge Elio Sparacino signed the 16-page custody order. il Giornale noted that one of the arrested had previously faced charges for assaulting a transgender person.

How the case began

The investigation was triggered by a complaint from a lawyer representing a man arrested by the five officers on July 16, 2026. The man, described by some sources as a suspected drug dealer, reported that cash he had on him at the time of arrest had disappeared. The amount is reported as 1,400 euros by ANSA and as 1,450 euros by il Giornale and La Stampa. Commander Gianluca Mirabelli said the investigation took 15 days from the initial report to the arrests.

The staged operation

According to the 16-page order by Judge Sparacino, the operation began in Corsico, outside the officers' jurisdiction. A woman unconnected to the police force was used to simulate the purchase of approximately 500 grams of hashish. After detaining the man, the officers transported him not to Corsico but to Milan, on via Ludovico il Moro, where they "artificially reconstructed" the scene of the arrest to make it appear it had occurred within their territory. Surveillance cameras in Corsico and at a gas station on via Ludovico il Moro captured the real sequence of events, contradicting the officers' account. The judge wrote that the officers had fabricated a series of acts to make the arrest appear lawful, on the basis of which the man was placed in preventive custody. Only the work of the defense lawyer and the Prosecutor's office demonstrated the illegitimacy "in a short time". Sabato is additionally charged with forgery and calumny for attributing to the arrested man a resistance that never occurred.

Additional cases under scrutiny

Fanpage, citing court documents, reports that the same group may have falsified records in at least two other arrests. One allegedly took place on August 1 at 19:00 in Milan, where Sabato, Compagnone, and Di Leo wrote that they had witnessed a drug sale at 18:10, but camera footage and the statement of the alleged buyer contradicted their account. A Milan Tribunal sentence dated May 4 had already noted "a clear discrepancy" between an arrest report filed by Sabato and another officer named Ravagnese and what surveillance footage actually showed. These additional cases are not part of the custody order but were cited by the judge as evidence of a risk of reoffending.

Reactions

Commander Mirabelli addressed the case on Radiolombardia, calling it a painful affair that showed the Corps can react.

“From the report received, it took only fifteen days to reconstruct, under the guidance of the Judicial Authority, an undoubtedly painful affair, but one that demonstrates how the Corps knows how to react and is resistant to conduct for which there are no justifications.”

He added that five individuals would not compromise the honorability of over 3,300 women and men who serve daily with dignity and rigor. Guarantee interrogations before Judge Sparacino are scheduled for the afternoon of August 7.