An Italian man who was suspected of involvement in a scandal over embezzled European Union agricultural subsidies in Slovakia has been convicted in his home country on drug charges, according to an investigation by OCCRP media partners.

IrpiMedia and the Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak (ICJK) obtained an Italian court document showing that Antonino Vadalà was convicted in October 2024 for cocaine trafficking in a criminal organisation with ties to the ‘Ndrangheta Italian mafia group.

Vadalà’s name had come up when Slovakian investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was looking into an agricultural subsidies fraud scheme, which allegedly involved public officials and business figures with alleged links to the ’Ndrangheta.

Kuciak’s work was cut short when he was murdered in 2018 along with his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. The killings sparked nationwide protests that eventually brought down the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico. Re-elected in 2023, Fico once again leads the government. 

Fico was never implicated in the murders, but Kuciak’s final article — published after his death — detailed alleged links between Vadalà and members of Fico’s inner circle. Vadalà was detained after the murder but released 48 hours later, and was never investigated again in relation to the case. In a 2020 trial, former soldier Tomas Szabó was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for their killing. 

OCCRP’s member centers — IrpiMedia in Italy, and ICJK in Slovakia — have now published a joint investigation building on the work Kuciak started. 

They have obtained documents showing that Vadalà was named by Italian and Slovakian police as part of an investigation into the agricultural subsidies case. 

Vadalà did not respond to questions when contacted through his lawyer.

The previously-unpublished law enforcement documents show that Slovak police opened an investigation in 2013 focusing on EU agricultural subsidies. The documents show that the Slovakian police liaison officer in Rome requested information from the Italian Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA).

The DIA informed Slovakian authorities that Vadalà occasionally returned to Bova Marina, his hometown on the coast of Calabria, where they alleged “he associates with convicted criminals and prominent figures in organized crime.” 

Slovakian authorities wrote that Vadalà had purchased “several agricultural cooperatives” through “non-repayable financial loans” from two funds that make up the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. To obtain these loans, he allegedly used properties with artificially-inflated values as collateral, according to the police document.

It is unclear if the 2013 investigation by Slovakian police, in cooperation with their Italian colleagues, led to charges against Vadalà. He was widely reported to have been charged in 2018 as part of the subsidies fraud case, but it’s not known if prosecutors based their case on evidence collected by police five years earlier.

While he faced charges in Slovakia related to the subsidies fraud scheme, Vadalà was extradited to his home country in March 2018 on drug trafficking charges, according to Italian media.

According to media reports, Slovakia asked Italy to resolve Vadalà’s subsidies fraud charges in local courts. However, Italian authorities reportedly dismissed the case, because the alleged offences took place in 2009 and the statute of limitations had run out.

Vadalà reportedly spent four years in prison in Italy, accused of trafficking cocaine with a criminal organization linked to the ’Ndrangheta. After the initial conviction, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial and the release of the defendants. In October 2024, his conviction was upheld.

Meanwhile, IrpiMedia and ICJK discovered two more men with mafia connections in Italy and business interests in the same area of Slovakia where Vadalà was raising cattle. 

Michelangelo Rodi was indicted in 2025 in a ‘Ndrangheta-connected tax evasion probe in Italy, according to Italian media reports on the case, which is ongoing. Slovakian corporate records show he opened a freight transport company in 2024 in Beša, the Slovak village where Vadala’s family is based. Rodi couldn’t be reached for comment. 

The other man is Vincenzo D’Amico, who was convicted in 2020 of helping an ’Ndrangheta clan launder money. An appeal process is ongoing. Through his lawyer, D’Amico declined to comment.

Two years after his first-instance conviction in Italy, D’Amico opened a trading company in Slovakia called Sc Perlight.Sk. The company was based in Trebišov, half an hour from Beša.

Maria Sharapova