Career
He was nicknamed Capastorta, which translates to wrong-head, because of his violent reputation. He was on the "most wanted list" of the Italian ministry of the Interior from 1995 until 2011, for Camorra association, murder, extortion, robbery and other crimes. On 8 February 2000, an international warrant was issued against him, to be arrested for extradition.
The criminal career of Michele Zagaria, began in the 1980s, alongside Alberto Beneduce and Francesco Schiavone.
His first arrest dates back to 1988, when he was found with a 7.65 submachine gun—the weapon of choice for soldiers of the Camorra—in his car. Since then he was in and out of jail, until, on 6 December 1995, the so-called Spartacus investigation—the mother of all anti-Camorra operations—identified him as one of the heads of the Casalesi clan.
Since then he vanished from public life. Zagaria is an atypical Casalesi boss.
According to informants, he doesn"t refuse a few lines of cocaine, a strict taboo within the clan.
He insists on being treated like a priest: "You should do what I say and not what I do." He knows how to construct his image. Employees are allegedly received in extravagant villas and greeted with a tiger on a leash. With Antonio Iovine, Zagaria represented the new face of management of the Camorra, forging strategic alliances with the Calabrian "Ndrangheta.
According to Roberto Saviano, the writer of Gomorrah about the Camorra, it was Zagaria’s "business acumen" that had "enabled his companies to triumph throughout Italy".
Zagaria was arrested on 7 December 2011, when police raided a secret bunker in Casapesenna. He had been on the run for 16 years, living in his cramped quarters for years, emerging rarely.
The arrest led to scenes of jubilation among the police officers. Some embraced; others gave the V for Victory sign and punched the air amid cries of "Long live the police.
Long live legality.".
