During the night, an operation by the Carabinieri – on behalf of the Dda of Rome – led to thirteen arrests in Rome for drug trafficking, receiving stolen goods, illegal possession of weapons, attempted murder and injuries. Among others, a name known in the news and in the criminal “novel” of the capital, which is not a novel, ended up in handcuffs: Raffaele Pernasettiover the years a leading figure of the so-called Magliana band.
But who was Pernasetti and how did he get to the top of the Capitoline underworld? Nicknamed “Er Palletta”, born in 1950, he has a very respectable criminal curriculum behind him.
His career finally took off of the Seventies when he joined the nascent Banda della Magliana, led by Franco Giuseppucci. In a short time he manages to make room for himself in the ranks of the battery becoming the right arm of Enrico De Pedis, known as “Renatino”a leading member of the newly founded organization. The figure of Pernasetti is fundamental: he guarantees new drug supply channels and controls strategic areas of the capital such as Trastevere, Testaccio, Torpignattara and Centocelle. The gang immediately stood out in the criminal scene for kidnappings, robberies, control of gambling and drug trafficking.
To control the world of betting, the Gang kills Franco Nicolini, known as “Franchino er Criminale”, on 27 July 1978 in Tor di Valle, a murder that will forever change the course of the history of Roman organized crime. The underworld life of “Er Palletta” then intertwines with that of Sienese clandue to De Pedis’ need to have direct contact with the Camorra. In the eighties, Michele Senese, “O’ Pazzo”, settles in Rome as representative of the Afragola clan. With him, Pernasetti makes agreements for the trafficking of cocaine and the management of the drug dealing.
In 1980, Franco Giuseppucci, true leader and founder of the Band, is killed in Trastevere by Franco Nicolini’s menwho have been plotting revenge since the day the boss was killed. From this moment the descending parable of the Banda della Magliana begins, which splits in two. On one side there are the Maglianese, loyal to Maurizio Abbatinogreat criminal leader who founded the gang together with Giuseppucci and De Pedis, while on the other the Testaccini, led by “Renatino” and “Er Palletta”more inclined to business in the construction world and linked to the Senese clan.
The 1980s marked a decade of bloodshed and transformation. After Giuseppucci’s death, the internal truce breaks down: the Testaccini begin to operate independentlycleaning up dirty money in commercial activities and forging ever deeper ties with politics and deviant services. However, the pressure from the police and the internal war for control of drug trafficking wear down the group. The final blow came on February 2, 1990, when Enrico De Pedis was murdered in via del Pellegrino. Pernasetti remains one of the few leaders of the Testaccini still active, but the fate of the Band is now sealed.
When the gang begins to crumble under the blows of the confessions of the repentant Maurizio Abbatino (1992), Pernasetti chooses the path of hiding. His escape doesn’t end with a spectacular blitz, simply in the 2002when the 30-year sentence became final (with a sentence issued by the Court of Assizes of Rome in 2000, which became irrevocable in 2002, for complicity to murder – a score-settling committed in Rome on 24 November 1981 – criminal association, violation of the law on narcotics, possession and illegal carrying of weapons, while the crime of mafia association was not recognized for the entire gang) Pernasetti he spontaneously presents himself at the Prato prison.
“Er Palletta” who has spent most of the last twenty years in prison, in 2011 he obtained semi-freedom, and began working during the day as a chef in the family restaurant in Testaccioand then return to prison in the evening. In 2016 he was finally released from prison and officially continued to work as a chef. But according to the investigators behind this facade of honest work there would be another broker activity of an organization led by Manuel Severa, in which relationships would come into play that Pernasetti had entered into with the Sienese clan in the 1980s. In fact, with their approval, he would have moved between the neighborhoods of the eternal city, bringing into contact various criminal universes present on the soil of Rome. According to the investigating judge’s order which led to his precautionary custody, he would have been in direct contact with the Marando, ‘Ndrangheta clan, of San Basilio (originally from Platì) and with Manuel Severa’s group, who would have been implicated in the sorting of hashish and cocaine in the Trullo and Corviale squares.
But the accusations don’t end there. In 2024 Pernasetti allegedly pointed a gun at the head of a Roman mechanic for a drug-related debt of 8 thousand euros. Not having obtained the money, he allegedly ordered the mechanic to be punished, shot in the legs with three gunshots on 25 March 2024, in via Pian delle Towers.
Based on this reconstruction, the 75-year-old today appears as the last bridge between the crime of the second part of the last century and the current onealmost an authority because he “was there” when the Banda della Magliana really commanded Rome.
