Rocco Lo Presti

Rocco Lo Presti
Mugshot of the 'Ndrangheta boss of Bardonecchia Rocco Lo Presti
Born	(1937-05-06)May 6, 1937 Marina di Gioiosa Ionica, Reggio Calabria, Italy
Died	January 23, 2009(2009-01-23) Turin, Piedmont, Italy
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Cemetery of Bardonecchia
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Roccu u Maneja - Zzi Roccu - The Godfather
Occupation	Crime boss, Businessman, entrepreneur
Allegiance	'Ndrangheta

Rocco Lo Presti or Lopresti known in his town of origin as "Roccu u Maneja" (Marina di Gioiosa Ionica May 6, 1937; - Turin January 23, 2009), was an Italian boss of the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organization in Calabria, Italy, but his criminal base was in Piedmont region.

Historical mafia boss of Bardonecchia and Val di Susa was the Godfather of the 'Ndrangheta in Piedmont. Bardonecchia is an alpine town in the province of Turin, in Piedmont region, on the border with France and the main ski resort in Italy. His was a name that marked fifty years Bardonecchia and Val di Susa. He was a piece of economic history. He has employed thousands of people. He built half Bardonecchia entrepreneur during the years of the building boom. For judges of Turin was instead one who imported the phenomenon of the Mafia in northern Italy. He ruled the roost in the building. Lo Presti was the man who, during the boom years and the speculation in Piedmont, imposed the rule of labor building throughout the Val di Susa. Over the years Sixties and Seventies his power in Piedmont was equal to that of Antonio Macri in Calabria. He had the hegemony on the territory of the Val di Susa with his cousin Francesco Mazzaferro. Rose to the headlines during the boom years and the speculation before, and the kidnapping-murder Ceretto then, had the absolute power in the building and the underworld in Piedmont until 1975, when he was sent into internal exile on the island of Asinara. For decades it has investigated him. The file is huge, tied with a big string. In the history of the infiltration of the 'Ndrangheta in Piedmont between the '65 and '75 his figure is much talk and is evoked several times by investigators. In the archives of police there are only private and confidential information to thousands of pages, but no concrete evidence of any direct or illegal crimes whatsoever. The file is full of acquittal for lack of evidence. Inquiries, parliamentary reports, complaints, arrest warrants, arrests, seizures. But he always preferred to pose as a mild citizen persecuted by justice. Yet he was the man most talked about of the Val di Susa. A man capable of climbing the rungs of the career criminal slipping between a harmless process and the other, able to conquer power, skilled in being able to build a solid economic position thanks to influential friends that allowed him to create an empire in Bardonecchia during the years of the building boom. Related to the Mazzaferro Family of Marina di Gioiosa Ionica, of which he was the most important exponent, he moved to Piedmont in the late fifties by the town subalpine his fiefdom. He turned reverently many politicians during election campaigns. He had ties with the clan of Marseille and with all the major crime families of Calabria and Sicily. He had friendly relations and business with the Inzerillo Mafia clan -Gambino -Spatola of Palermo. It was through his friendship with Salvatore Inzerillo , boss of Palermo, who was able to go on several occasions in the United States to form alliances with the cousins of the Gambino family of New York. He also had ties with the families of the 'Ndrangheta in Canada. According to an associate justice in recent years he had come and ally to the Aquino family, rivals of Mazzaferro family. Man of the old school was always against drugs.