Saverio Tucci found dead in a car in Amsterdam-West

Saverio Tucci, a 44-year-old Italian man from Manfredonia in the province of Foggia, was found dead in Amsterdam in October 2017. His body was discovered inside a suitcase in the trunk of a Renault Clio that had been left on Henriette Roland Holststraat in Slotermeer. The investigation showed that Tucci had probably been shot dead on 10 October 2017 inside a home on Dongestraat in the Rivierenbuurt area of Amsterdam-Zuid. He had been killed by bullets to the head and body. After the shooting, his body was placed in a suitcase and later abandoned in the car in Amsterdam-West. Tucci was known in Italian media as “Faccia d’Angelo”, or “Angel Face”, because of his striking blue eyes. He had a criminal background and was linked to the Gargano mafia and the Libergolis clan in southern Italy. He had also previously been convicted of drug trafficking and had survived an earlier assassination attempt in Manfredonia in 2012, when he was shot at from close range. Shortly after his body was found, police arrested three men. The main suspect became Carlo Magno, an older Italian man who was living in the Netherlands. According to prosecutors, he had shot Tucci dead. The case was later largely transferred to Italy, because both the victim and the suspect were Italian and the background to the murder was believed to lie in Italy. Carlo Magno eventually turned himself in and reportedly confessed to the killing. According to his version, it was not a contract killing but a conflict between him and Tucci that escalated. He said Tucci had been extorting him and that the dispute was connected to drug trafficking and cocaine importation from the Netherlands. Italian prosecutors also examined the murder in the context of a wider mafia feud in the Gargano region. Tucci was believed to have been involved shortly before his own death in a quadruple murder in Italy, in which mafia boss Mario Romito, Romito’s brother-in-law and two innocent passers-by were shot dead. Later Italian statements suggested that Tucci’s death may have been connected to that violent conflict between rival clans. Carlo Magno was prosecuted in Italy for the murder of Saverio Tucci and also became important there as a cooperating witness in investigations into the Gargano mafia. For the Amsterdam case, this means that Saverio Tucci was murdered in the Netherlands, probably inside a home on Dongestraat, but that the criminal proceedings were mainly handled in Italy.