Marcello Colafigli, known as “Marcellone,” was arrested in the early dawn hours of Tuesday, June 4, on drug trafficking charges. According to the accusation from the Rome public prosecutor’s office, although he is on semi-freedom, the last member of the Magliana Gang would be involved in drug trafficking abroad and would have maintained relations with members of the ‘Magliana Gang’. Ndrangheta, the Camorra, the Foggia mafia and the Albanians. He inspired the character “Bufalo” in Romanzo Criminale.
Who is he
Marcello Colafigli, also called “Marcellone”, was born on November 12, 1953 in Poggio Mirteto, in the province of Rieti. Orphaned by his mother and survivor of a twin birth where his brother was born dead, Marcello Colafigli completed his secondary education in a technical institute. He had another brother named Alberto who had a marginal role in the drug trafficking gang and who died prematurely in the ’90s. His criminal nature, however, will take over and, with his close friend Franco Giuseppucci, he often organizes himself into different teams dedicated to thefts. The other criminals recognized in him an indescribable physical strength and a violence in his manners and reactions which quickly earned him the nickname Marcellone.
Magliana Band
Marcello Colafigli joined the Magliana Gang on November 7, 1977 with the kidnapping of Duke Grazioli, thanks to his friend Franco Giuseppucci. This event is probably the origin of the real Gang. At that time there was Franco Giuseppucci, nicknamed “Er Fornaretto”, Enrico De Pedis, Maurizio Abbatino and Nicolino Selis. According to Antonio Mancini, he was the true founder of the band, although the stories have been much more romanticized. Colafigli, along with Mancini, also played a key role in the Donna Olimpia ambush, when the two attempted to kill the Proietti brothers, believed to be the perpetrators of Giuseppucci’s assassination.
The death of Giuseppucci
When Franco Giuseppucci was killed on September 13, 1980, it was Colafigli who led the revenge efforts and the confrontation with the Proietti group, also known as “Pesciaroli”, considered primarily responsible for the boss’s death. of the Magliana. On March 16, 1981 in Monteverde, with Antonio Mancini, he killed Maurizio Proietti, but in the exchange of fire that followed, he was arrested. He and Mancini attempt to flee law enforcement, but eventually surrender. Colafigli was one of the first to plead insanity to lessen the impact of legal consequences. Over the years, the gang slowly begins to lose influence with Renatino De Pedis, known as Er Dandi in Romanzo Criminale, ready to take command. This does not please Marcellone and another member of the Gang, Edoardo Toscano, very close to Colafigli. In particular, De Pedis is accused of no longer supporting the imprisoned members of the group but of only thinking about his own interests.
The assassination of Enrico de Pedis
Toscano, who is on the run, takes responsibility for killing De Pedis but he plays in advance by having him murdered in turn. Despite everything, Colafigli did not give up his intentions and, taking advantage of a leave of absence, escaped from the asylum in the summer of 1989. He became untraceable, went abroad, made new contacts with members of the Band that referred to the Magliana group. On February 2, 1990, Renato De Pedis was finally murdered in via del Pellegrino by two killers hired for the task.
The convictions
The flight of Marcello Colafigli and his accomplices did not last long, they traveled in Italy and abroad but were gradually identified and arrested. On July 26, 1991, he was arrested in Via Giustiniano Imperatore in Rome. Sentenced to life imprisonment, in 2012 the boss of Magliana returned to Rome. He also benefits from semi-liberty because he is recognized as having a mental illness. In 2021 he returned to prison because he was found in the company of several criminals in Ostia, where he lived with his sister in the Casal Palocco area. When he asked to return to semi-release, the judges rejected the request.
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