Editing Maurizio Abbatino

Maurizio Abbatino

Born July 19, 1954

Abbatino was one of the original bosses of the Banda della Magliana, an Italian criminal syndicate based in Rome and was active throughout the Years of Lead or Operation Gladio into the early 1990s when Operation Operation Gladio was exposed in Italy. He become an informant after his arrest in 1992.

His criminal history was documented intially in 1972 when he was arrested for robbery, resisting arrest among other charges. In 1974 he was arrested for two murders.  However, he was acquitted for lack of evidence and released. It is alleged he was a member of a local Gladio cell and was among those trained in Gladio operations with access to weapon caches for Operation Gladio activities. His code name was Crispino. He was known for his passion for fast cars and was an expert driver for use in various activities. He was often employed him as a getaway driver and had a reputation for being able to evade police. He was involved the Banda della Magliana. 

Banda della Magliana

The Banda della Magliana operated as a cell of Gladio as well as many associations with the Italian mafia and its activities. Abbatino along with Franco Giuseppucci, known as Er Negro created Banda della Magliana. Giuseppucci was well known for having a mobile cache of weapons to use in the protection of their activities. Giuseppucci was the guardian of weapons for illicit activities.  Giuseppucci was given a bag containing weapons belonging to his friend Enrico De Pedis. The car with the weapons inside was stolen. The weapons were sold and were being delivered when Giovanni Tigani (code name Paperino) stole the car with the weapons inside. Giuseppucci discovered the weapons were now in the possession of Emilio Castelletti, one of the men working for Abbatino.

"Franco Giuseppucci wasted no time and immediately went looking for the car with the guns inside and on the same day, likely informed by Tigani himself, came to reclaim the weapons. This was the occasion in which we met Franco Giuseppucci who proposed to join forces, since we already knew Enrico De Pedis who was working alongside Giuseppucci, and who soon joined up with Giuseppucci. This new batteria was thus formed when Giuseppucci's group and our own decided to join forces. This was when we agreed on the obligations of solidarity and exclusive cooperation."

— Testimony of Maurizio Abbatino, 13 December 1992

This led to Giuseppucci, Abbatino and De Pedis creating a new affiliation. Each had their areas of expertise that fit nicely with the domestic leg of the Operation Gladio illicit drug trafficking and money laundering. Giuseppucci had money laundering expertise and a side hustle of bookmaking or gambling, while Abbatino specialized in criminal activities such as robberies and had the ultimate goal of moving into drug trafficking. Giuseppucci assumed the leadership role while Abbatino
became second in command.

Giuseppucci proposed a kidnapping to get the necessary funds to get into the drug trafficking arena. As a sidenote: the Italian island of Sardinia was the training facility for teaching Gladio operators the techniques of kidnapping. They planned the  kidnapping of Duke Massimiliano Grazioli Lante della Rovere to demand a ransom. Giuseppucci, who had been involved with other kidnappings, targeted the Duke because he was wealthy and generally traveled without protection. On 7 November 1977, Giuseppucci and Abbatino's group kidnapped the duke with Abbatino leading the operation. The Banda della Magliana requested 10 billion in ransom, that was eventually lowered to 1.5 billion. On 14 February 1978 the duke's son delivered the money to Abbatino's men, but the duke was not delivered as promised. One of the group had been seen unmasked by the duke leading to the murder of the Duke. Abbatino took a picture of the Duke to prove to he was still alive, but unfortunately for the Duke he was murdered by his captors soon after the picture was taken and he was never heard from again. 

Abbatino would use the ransom to buy his groups way into the lucrative drug trafficking network set up as part of Operation Gladio. They joined forces with Nicolino Selis, a close associate and godson of Raffaele Cutolo. Selis and his group became the main link between the Banda della Magliana and the Nuova Camorra Organizzata (NCO), an initial supplier of drugs for Abbatino's network. As their initiation into the drug trafficking business, Cutolo asked them to dispose of a car in which there were the bodies of two men he had killed. The car was taken to a scrapyard.

Abbatino took an active role in the drug operations while Giuseppucci remained in the background of the operation. Abbatino would murder Franco Nicolini who at the time was the primary illicit bookmaker in Rome. On 25 July 1978, as Nicolini was leaving the Tor di Valle Racecourse, he was ambushed by men who opened fire on him. Nicolini tried to escape, but he was blocked by Abbatino's car and finished off by Edoardo Toscano and Giovanni Piconi.The Banda della Magliana became very powerful as a result of this murder and took control of the entire city's drug trade and gambling operations. They murdered anyone who got in their way. Abbatino murdered Claudio Vannicola and Angelo De Angelis, two of the city's most prominent drug traffickers. Giuseppucci would work behind the scenes in the corruption of doctors, judges and politicians.

The sole remaining threat to their dominance was the Proietti Clan, an association of family who had a heavy influence in Roman betting shops who had worked with Franco Nicolini. When Nicolini was murdered and the Banda della Magliana took complete control over Roman betting shops, the Proietti's were out of business. The Proietti's, on 13 September 1980, were viewed as enemies after Franco Giuseppucci was killed. Indeed, they sought revenge triggering a war between the two groups.

The first major casualty of the war was Giuseppucci. The two members of the Proletti's group, known as Er Pescetto, and Fernando Proietti known as Er Pugile executed the deed. They also planned to take out his bodyguard but failed. The two killers were arrested them after they noticed they were carrying weapons. This provided them temporarily protection from the Banda della Magliana. Instead, Abbatino's group targeted Enrico Proietti, known as Er Cane, who was a cousin of the two killers. On 27 October 1980, Enrico was shot by Abbatino but managed to escape. Several more attacks occur set up by Abbatino and on 16 March 1981, Abbatino located Maurizio Er Pescetto, who had been released from jail and it what would be one of the most infamous shootouts in the war.  Abbatino led the effort with two hitmen, Marcello Colafigli and Antonio Mancini.

Maurizio Proietti and his brother Mario had just got home with their families when shots rang out. Er Pescetto was shot to death and his brother Mario was but able to escape.  Police were nearby and called in for reinforcements once they heard the gunshots. Abbatino and his two hitmen tried to escape and both were wounded, surrendering and were arrested. The turf war with the Proietti family ended on 30 June 1982, when another of  Giuseppucci's killers, Fernando Er Pugile, was ambushed and shot to death in his car by Edoardo Toscano. The Banda della Magliana was able to conquer the few remaining territories and assets that were not yet under their control.

Despite having won the turf war, all was not smooth sailing inside Banda della Magliana.  After the death of Giuseppucci, Abbatino was the likely successor as head of the network. However, Nicolino Selis had other ideas and because of his friendship with NCO Boss Raffaele Cutolo, began acting as if he was in charge. He began taking more money for himself and his associates and began recruiting criminals in jail to be only loyal to him. He began organizing drug shipments without informing Abbatino. He ordered a hit on Danilo Abbruciati on behalf of Selis. Abbatino and the rest of Banda della Magliana began seeing Selis as more of a puppet in the hands of the NCO rather than one of their own, and so they sided with Abbruciati. As Selis left a psychiatric hospital (led there by Abbatino) on 3 February 1981, he disappeared. Selis' body has never been found. That same night, Selis' right-hand man, Antonio Leccese, was shot dead as he returned home. Other Selis' recruits would later be killed in mysterious circumstances. On 29 January 1983, Vincenzo Casillo was murdered and that ended the NCO's presence in Rome. A survivor of NCO, Fulvio Lucioli, Selis' personal driver who would later become a member of the Banda della Magliana.

Another tie to Operation Gladio...Danilo Abbruciati was a member of Banda della Magliana. He shot Roberto Rosone, who served as vice president of Banco Ambrosiano while Roberto Calvi was the president and who replaced Roberto Calvi when he was assassinated in 1981. The following year, an attempted assassination on Rosone was attempted by Abbruciati. Abbruciati would die under mysterious conditions himself. According to Abbatino, this was not an order given by him yet it was his group that carried out the assassination attempt. 

As members of Banda della Magliana, Danilo Abbruciati and Enrico De Pedis specialized in money laundering the group's illicit funds into real estate and other ventures with strong ties to the Sicilian Mafia, specifically Pippo Calo. Their use of the Banco Ambrosiano would indicate they had reason to not want anyone at the bank to talk.  Abbatino's role was the one most responsible for murders and drug trafficking, activities which attracted much more police attention. Most of the members were usually arrested only for a few months at a time before being released for lack of evidence. This became a hallmark of their affilitation with Operation Gladio because it was being ran by the officials in the government who controlled the judicial process as well. 

Abbatino was eventually arrested and faked leg paralysis to orchestrate his escape to Venezuela. Meanwhile the judicial system was busy covering up the Banda della Magliana in at least two rulings declaring it did not actually exist. 

On 15 March 1991, Roberto Abbatino (Maurizio's brother) disappeared without a trace after leaving his house. He was found three days later floating in the Tiber river: he had been kidnapped and tortured with a knife and had several stab wounds. His killers wanted to find out where Maurizio Abbatino was hiding, but despite the enormous suffering, Roberto did not reveal the location of his brother. Roberto Abbatino was not known to have been involved in any criminal activities. 

Maurizio Abbatino, the only original member of Banda della Magliana alive, was arrested, after 6 years, on 24 January 1992 in Caracas, Venezuela. He was put into the witness protection program and sent to a secure location. Following his revelations to the court, which were similar and which rehabilitated the ones made years before by Fulvio Lucioli and the defunct Claudio Sicilia, on 16 April 1993 a police operation, Operazione Colosseo. It involved more than 500 police officers, ended with the arrest of over a hundred members of the Banda della Magliana. The trial began in 1995 and took one year. The tribunal recognized the existence of the criminal association: the judges considered it to be a Mafia association on the same level as the Camorra, Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, and asked for several life sentences.