Hundreds of tearful mourners paid their final respects to Vittorio Casamonica, 65, at the San Giovanni Bosco church on Rome’s outskirts.
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Although he was never convicted of being a Mafia don, the 65-year-old, who died of cancer, was the alleged head of Casamonica clan, which reportedly runs drugs, fraud and extortion rings in Rome.
A poster on the gates of the church proclaimed: “You will have conquered Rome, now conquer paradise”.
In addition to the flower petals, the funeral Thursday of Vittorio Casamonica featured a gilded, horse-drawn carriage carrying the casket and a band playing the theme music from “The Godfather” outside the Rome church.
It emerged on Friday that the helicopter pilot who flew low over the city to drop the flower petals has had their licence suspended by Italy’s civil aviation authority.
ENAC said the helicopter flew below the 330m limit and violated regulations by tossing objects – flower petals – out of its hold without authorisation.
The clan, which has its roots in the Roma community, is one of the crime networks accused of infiltrating the city’s government and influencing politicians in a spiralling corruption investigation.
In an interview with the Catholic publication Famiglia Cristiana, Gabrielli blamed a breakdown in communications caused partly by August holiday absences, saying neither he nor the police chief learned about the police escort in time to do anything about it.
Ignazio Marino, the city’s mayor, called Rome’s prefect demanding to know how the event was given the go-ahead and tweeted it was “intolerable that funerals are used by the living to send mafia messages”.
The funeral was the latest scandal to hit Rome after a summer of public transportation break-downs and reports linking dozens of politicians to organized crime.
Politicians also expressed anger over the funeral, which took place just a day after a judge set 5 November as the start date for the trial of some 59 people charged in a mafia investigation. “Ostentatious luxury, horses decorated in black, a carriage with golden decoration that probably not even Queen Elizabeth could afford”, resident Walter Grubissa said Friday.
The parish priest told local media he couldn’t control what happened outside the church, but said the funeral was standard fare once everyone moved inside.
Others said the service itself was sober.
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Questions are being requested about who granted permission for the lavish spectacle and why the Catholic authorities permitted considered one of their church buildings, the Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco, for use for the funeral mass.
