Italian businessman is mastermind behind journalist bomb attack, police say

August 10, 2026 / 1:24 PM EDT / CBS/AFP A businessman who had ties to former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is the alleged mastermind behind an October bomb attack against one of the country's leading investigative journalists, police said on Monday. Rome's Carabinieri police said they arrested Valter Lavitola for allegedly ordering the attack outside journalist Sigfrido Ranucci's house last year. The two men are said to be friends. The blast in a residential neighborhood of Pomezia, about 12 miles south of Rome, destroyed two cars belonging to Ranucci, known for investigations into corruption and the mafia. Ranucci had just returned home at the time, and his daughter had walked by a half-hour before, his employer said at the time.

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