A year after the murder of
Pamela Mastropietro, an 18-year-old Rome resident killed and
chopped up into pieces, Macerata prosecutor Giovanni Giorgio
said that the case had served as a wake-up call on the extent of
drug-dealing in the area.
On February 13 a trial will begin against Innocent Oseghale,
a 30-year-old Nigerian drug dealer accused of raping and killing
the girl with a knife.
He has admitted to chopping up the 18-year-old Roman woman's
body but not to her homicide or to raping her.
Mastropietro's dismembered body was found in two suitcases
near Macerata.
Oseghale claims Mastropietro died of a heroin overdose at his
home and that he cut up her body as part of an attempt to get
rid of it.
For the three Nigerians put under investigation as
accomplices, the prosecutor's office instead requested that
their files be shelved.
Giorgio told ANSA that "we believe we have built a case
within a reasonable investigative timeline on the basis of a
careful inquiry".
However, he noted that he had been "struck" by the extent of
drug dealing in the area, "especially by Nigerian nationals,
which had clearly escaped the attention" of the authorities
prior to that time.
He stressed that investigative activities had since been
stepped up to address the problem, with police and carabinieri
reinforcements sent to the area.
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