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.

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.

"Had the Carabiniere that evening followed basic police protocols for doing an undercover operation, Cerciello Rega would be alive today," he said.