Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into businessman and former journalist Walter Lavitola, who is suspected of organizing an explosion outside the home of prominent investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci, The Guardian reports.

According to investigators, Lavitola may have been behind the attack on the host of Report, a program on the state broadcaster Rai. He has been formally suspected of attempted crimes linked to a possible mass killing.

The investigation began after police last week detained four people who allegedly acted on Lavitola’s orders and may have been involved in the explosion in October last year.

An improvised but powerful explosive device was detonated near Ranucci’s home in a town outside Rome. The blast almost completely destroyed the journalist’s car and his daughter’s vehicle.

No one was injured. The explosion occurred late in the evening shortly after Ranucci, who has been under police protection for years because of threats against him, returned home.

The journalist said he was shocked by Lavitola’s possible involvement, describing him as “a true friend” with whom he said he had been in contact almost every day.

Investigators have not yet established the exact motive for the attack. However, according to prosecutors, Lavitola instructed others to find people to plant the explosive device and allegedly paid them several thousand euros.

Ranucci and Lavitola met in 2019 after a journalistic investigation that the Report host devoted to the businessman’s activities. In the past, Lavitola was involved in several court cases, including a conviction in a blackmail case involving former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Ranucci said he had never hidden his friendship with Lavitola, who is now in business and owns a restaurant in Rome that the journalist often visited.

“He was shaken. I too was very surprised by this turn in the investigation,” Ranucci told Corriere della Sera.

After the attack, the journalist said he had received so many threats that identifying their source would be extremely difficult. However, he called what happened “a disturbing new level,” since the attack took place “right outside his home.”

Earlier, in 2024, bullets were also found near Ranucci’s home.

Ranucci’s investigations on Report focus on alleged cases of corruption and organized crime. The broadcasts often touch on the activities of government ministers, some of whom have filed lawsuits against the program. The journalist himself has also criticized the alleged political influence of Giorgia Meloni’s government over the state broadcaster Rai.

Ranucci is also the author of a book about the Italian mafia. In 2021, he said that a former inmate had told him that after the book was published, mafia groups had allegedly “issued an order” for his killing, but the attempt was foiled.