Lavitola arrested for ordering bomb attack on Rai journalist Ranucci to boost his political career

The arrest

On August 10, 2026, Carabinieri from the Nucleo Investigativo arrested Valter Lavitola, a 60-year-old businessman, restaurateur and former journalist, transferring him to prison on a pretrial detention order issued by the judge for preliminary investigations (GIP) of Rome. Lavitola is accused of being the ordering party behind the bomb attack on Rai investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci, which took place on the night of October 16, 2025, outside Ranucci's home in Pomezia, near Rome. The explosive device was detonated near the journalist's parked vehicle, destroying two cars, his and his daughter's, and damaging a wall. No one was injured. The investigation is coordinated by Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, and the charges against Lavitola include the use of mafia methods.

The alleged motive

According to the 198-page detention order, Lavitola commissioned the attack "exclusively to increase the popularity of the journalist and accelerate his political projects." The judge wrote that in Lavitola's design, the attack was meant to appear to the public and to Ranucci as an act of intimidation or retaliation against the journalist's investigative work, but never to genuinely endanger his safety. Lavitola had begun proposing to Ranucci the idea of running in the next political elections as early as 2024, telling him in a chat message: "in two years you'll be President," referring to the 2027 elections. When Ranucci expressed fatigue from attacks on his work, Lavitola told him: "Every attack they make against you serves to make you grow further. Try to grasp it, otherwise you risk your health," and added, "They want to get you out of Rai? You'd hit bingo! And in two years, premier."

The intermediary and the executors

Alongside Lavitola, the detention order also targets Gomes Clesio Tavares, a 47-year-old Cameroonian who served as Lavitola's factotum and is suspected of acting as the intermediary between Lavitola and the material executors. Tavares is currently in Cameroon, having departed before being identified as a suspect. Investigators believe Tavares recruited and instructed the Campanian executors, coordinated a reconnaissance on the Lazio coast on October 10, 2025, and provided his father-in-law's car for the operation. Lavitola and Tavares together conducted a first exploratory survey of the target on September 15, 2025. Four people, three men and a woman, were arrested in late June 2026 in the provinces of Naples and Avellino as the suspected material executors, accused of illegal possession of explosives, threats, and damage, aggravated by acting in a group of more than five and using mafia-type methods. Three were held in pretrial detention and one under house arrest. They were allegedly paid several thousand euros.

Ranucci's relationship with Lavitola

Ranucci, who hosts Report, a hard-hitting investigative program on state broadcaster Rai, had a security detail due to threats even before the bombing. When Lavitola emerged as a suspect last month, Ranucci said he did not believe Lavitola was behind the attack, considering him a friend. The GIP noted that Lavitola "on multiple occasions" commented that if he was the one who ordered the attack, then Ranucci must have agreed to it, but stated that "no element has emerged to suggest that the journalist was in agreement with Lavitola." Chat records show Ranucci knew Tavares at least since January 2022, and on October 17, 2024, the journalist messaged Lavitola saying he was "in difficulty on everything, but I go forward," and jokingly asked Lavitola to lend him Gomes. After the attack, Lavitola commissioned an electoral poll, investing time and money in the political project. Lavitola was stopped on July 6, 2026, while loading luggage to depart for Africa, and was searched on July 4. He was summoned to the prosecutor's office on July 8, where he exercised his right not to answer and made spontaneous declarations.