ROME/ABU DHABI - Spectacular search success for Italian investigators: the fugitive Albanian citizen Altin Sinomati was arrested in Abu Dhabi on October 10. The police of the United Arab Emirates thus executed an international „Red Notice“ (a global search request) that had been requested by the Anti-Mafia Directorate (DDA) in Rome. Sinomati is considered a key figure in organized crime in the capital and is linked to at least one murder contract and serious drug trafficking.
The murder on Torvajanica beach
The investigation, which was conducted jointly by the Carabinieri, state police and the Central Operational Service (SCO), paints a serious picture. Sinomati is believed to have ordered the murder of Selavdi Shehaj, known as „Passerotto“. The crime caused horror in September 2020: Shehaj was executed in broad daylight on a busy and sunny beach in Torvajanica (Pomezia). According to the investigators, Sinomati commissioned the perpetrator, Raul Esteban Calderon, and paid him 150,000 euros in cash to carry out the crime. Calderon and his co-defendant Giuseppe Molisse have already been sentenced to life imprisonment for this murder by the Frosinone Court of First Instance.
Cocaine trafficking hub
Sinomati's arrest is also a blow to international drug trafficking. In separate proceedings, he is accused of being one of the main suppliers of cocaine in the Rome region. He is alleged to have supplied a criminal organization led by the aforementioned Giuseppe Molisse and the well-known Leandro Bennato. This organization had already been broken up in March 2025 during a major raid by the Carabinieri in Rome. However, Sinomati was able to evade this operation. Apparently, after the arrest of the murder executor Calderon, he feared being targeted by the Roman public prosecutor's office and fled to the Emirates - until the investigators tracked him down. The presumption of innocence applies to all those named until a final conviction.
