Alessandro Casolari, a former leader of the Spal football ultras in Ferrara, claimed in a December 2024 phone call that he had been subjected to severe abuse during 177 days in Italian custody, including 82 days in solitary confinement. He alleged that prison guards broke his nose and caused a compound fracture to his right cheekbone, reducing his weight from 74kg to 61kg. Casolari described himself as a political prisoner, identifying as a "Marxist-Leninist communist revolutionary," and accused Italian institutions of being a "mafia-infested wormery." He said the charges against him stemmed from giving someone "four slaps," though official records indicate the case involved aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and the transfer of explosive devices, including cable ties, guns and a Taser. Casolari recounted a life intertwined with international crime, claiming he met his wife in Colombia after attending a funeral beside a lottery winner, then working with Farc guerrillas on hostage negotiations before importing hundreds of kilos of cocaine into northern Italy. He insisted he was truthful and never exaggerated, stating, "My calling card is unequivocal: I'm a loyal person, an extremely sincere person." The author, who had previously researched Italian ultras and later reconnected with Casolari while writing about the Po River, met him multiple times in his Ferrara bedsit, noting his eloquence and complex persona. Casolari had been involved with the Spal ultras since age 16 and was once sentenced to 12 months in prison, which he did not serve due to a general amnesty for minor offenses.
Caso frames his criminal record as political resistance, but his account omits the weapons and kidnapping tied to his arrest, not mere slaps. His self-portrait as a revolutionary martyr collapses under the weight of his own unedited boasts about cocaine trafficking and armed guerrilla ties. The narrative he offers depends on the listener accepting violence as ideology and crime as philosophy. That such a story finds any audience reveals how easily brutality can be rebranded when wrapped in rhetoric.
Editorial note: AI-assisted opinion, not established fact. Full disclaimer →
