Rosario D’Onofrio, the former referees’ attorney arrested for drugs: promoted by The Hague while he was already under house arrest

In encrypted chats they called him “Rambo”. Because during the toughest phases of the lockdown, Rosario D’Onofrio traveled around Lombardy in “camouflage” to deliver kilos of hashish and marijuana and collect thousands of euros to be sent to Spain. But besides the double life as a drug trafficker and soldierD’Onofrio had a third. The one from chief prosecutor of the Hague, the Italian association of referees. Now that’s it in prison on charges of international drug trafficking in a maxi operation by the Milan Finance Guard which on Thursday led to 42 precautionary measures, the 42-year-old from Garbagnate Milanese – with no small amount of embarrassment on the part of the body of match directors – was removed from office. “I am baffled, I immediately asked President Trentalange for feedback on the methods of selecting the prosecutor”, the words of the FIGC president Gabriele Gravina. The Hague speaks of “a betrayal that has seriously damaged the image of the entire Association”.

D’Onofrio had been promoted to national chief prosecutor while under house arrest after being arrested in May 2020 with 44 kilos of marijuana. «The Hague has no investigative powers to carry out verification and control work of what was declared by the associates – explain the top management of the arbitrators -. We would like to remind you that in order to assume the qualification of arbitrator, the interested party must declare the absence of criminal proceedings as well as convictions of more than one year for intentional crimes in res judicata”.

In the “Madera” investigation coordinated by prosecutors Rosario Ferracane and Sara Ombra of the Milan anti-mafia district directorate, in reality, the role of “disciplinary judge of the arbitrators” does not emerge, also because D’Onofrio is contested with facts that date back to the between December 2019 and May 20, 2020, when he was arrested in the act by the financiers with a load of 44 kilos of marijuana. He ends up in prison until September 16, 2020, then two years under house arrest. On the criminal front, the case ends with a shortened sentence of 2 years and 8 months and a fine of 6,000 euros. But it is precisely while he is under house arrest that D’Onofrio is promoted to “chief prosecutor of The Hague”. A modest career as a referee in the minor leagues, then from 2013 he had held the role of prosecutor in Lombardy – dealing with local designations and disciplinary proceedings – until the big leap in 2021 when he was called to Rome for the prestigious position.

«It was not a paid activity, we are talking about a few hundred euros of reimbursements for travel expenses when he attended the meetings in Rome», explains defender Niccolò Vecchioni. The lawyer had taken care of the requests to the Court to authorize him to travel to Rome in The Hague. D’Onofrio’s role in the investigation is mainly linked to his military career. He pretended to be a medical officer but in reality he had not finished his studies. He lived in Campania and when he was discovered a complaint for usurpation of title (a matter closed with probation) and suspension were triggered. This is why on March 25, 2020, in full lockdown, he contacted a “fellow soldier” to borrow a “camouflage service uniform”. With his uniform he circumvented “police checks due to his military status”, as the investigating judge Massimo Baraldo writes. In the trunk of his Volvo SUV, kilos of hashish and marijuana.

He had an encrypted cell phone and in the wiretaps it was said that “he should have gotten a gun”. Among the charges various drug deliveries, having participated in the beating of a “courier” suspected of having stolen 100 thousand euros, but also of having collected thousands of euros and having delivered them to a Chinese launderer in Chinatown in Milan who then turned them over to drug traffickers in Spain. In one case we are talking about 182,700 euros in cash. Rambo’s salary? Three hundred euros. On April 1, 2020, after being stopped in a check, he calls his partner and boasts: «Oh, the local police just stopped me. He saw me in uniform, my card, he saluted me militarily and said: “no, no, thank you… have a nice day!”.

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