carabiniere

Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was stabbed 11 times while he and a partner were on a plainclothes operation to recover a backpack that the two Americans took during a failed drug deal.

Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was stabbed 11 times while he and a partner were on a plainclothes operation to recover a backpack that the two Americans took during a failed drug deal.

On Wednesday, a jury found Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, both guilty of several charges – including homicide, assault, resisting a public official, attempted extortion and carrying an attack-style knife without just cause – in the July 2019 stabbing death of Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega.

"The message sent by these judges is clear. Those in a position of power, the Carabiniere and the prosecutors, can lie and mislead and they will not be held responsible," he added.

Finnegan Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were charged in the death of Carabiniere Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, among other crimes, including extortion for stealing a backpack from a go-between in which they demanded their money back in exchange for the bag.