Valter Lavitola, an entrepreneur and former journalist-editor, has been entered in the register of suspects by the Rome District Anti-Mafia Directorate (Dda) as the suspected mastermind of the explosive attack against Sigfrido Ranucci, host of the Rai3 program Report. The attack took place in October 2025, when an explosive device was detonated under the family car parked outside Ranucci's home in Campo Ascolano, in the municipality of Pomezia, in the Rome metropolitan area. The search and seizure of electronic devices Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of Rome and Frascati, on mandate from the Dda magistrates, executed a search at Lavitola's residence. During the operation, investigators seized the entrepreneur's mobile phone and computer. The electronic devices will undergo technical analysis to search for messages, contacts, or files useful in clarifying the motive of the attack, an aspect on which the investigation is still actively working. The four arrests and the mafia-method aggravating factor The development leading to Lavitola's involvement follows the arrest, the previous Tuesday, of four people considered by investigators to be the material executors who planted and detonated the device. The arrested individuals are Antonio Passariello, Saverio Mutone, Pellegrino D'Avino, and Marika De Filippi. Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, together with prosecutors Carlo Villani and Edoardo De Santis, charges Lavitola and the four arrested individuals with the crimes, jointly, of possession, carrying in a public place, and use of an explosive device, as well as threat and damage. The charges carry an aggravating factor of acting with mafia-style methods and in a group of more than five people. The intermediary and the investigation path According to the investigation documents, the group would have been contacted by an intermediary, who in turn was in contact with the suspected mastermind. In wiretaps cited by the judge for preliminary investigations, the person who allegedly commissioned the attack was referred to only as "quello" (that guy), without a name. Investigators from the Carabinieri Investigative Unit of Rome traced Lavitola step by step through the analysis of the phones and contacts of the four arrested individuals, reconstructing additional levels of the organization. The intermediary who allegedly acted as a go-between is a citizen of North African origin. The arrested individuals reportedly received several thousand euros to carry out the attack. Ranucci's reaction and the relationship with Lavitola Ranucci was summoned to the prosecutor's office as a witness after the arrests. The journalist stated that investigators asked him whether he knew the arrested individuals and reviewed past Report investigations concerning the geographic area where the group members lived. According to reports in Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, Ranucci expressed shock at the news of Lavitola's involvement, describing him as a friend with whom he had been in near-daily contact since 2019. Contacts between the two reportedly continued even after the arrest of the four material executors. The open questions on the motive According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, no investigations or reports on Lavitola by Report appear to be underway. The tendency among investigators would be to exclude that the device was planted for reasons related to Ranucci's journalistic work. The motive therefore remains under investigation, and investigators are working on all fronts without excluding any leads. Valter Lavitola's background Born in 1966 in Salerno, Lavitola was a member of the Italian Socialist Party before moving to Silvio Berlusconi's center-right. He founded the cooperative that acquired the newspaper L'Avanti!, of which he became director in 2003. His name is linked to several judicial cases, including the Montecarlo apartment scandal involving Gianfranco Fini, a period of flight to Latin America in 2011, an investigation in Panama for alleged bribes to President Ricardo Martinelli, and a Naples prosecution for alleged embezzlement of over 20 million euros in public funds for L'Avanti!. In 2012 he plea-bargained a sentence of three years and eight months, followed in 2013 by an additional two years and eight months for attempted extortion against Berlusconi. In 2015 he was sentenced in first instance to three years for corruption in the senator-buying case, a charge later declared time-barred by the Court of Cassation. After serving four years in prison, he obtained house arrest in 2016 and since then has been managing a fish restaurant in the Monteverde district of Rome.