Italian model nabbed for killing cop in robbery

Tall, young and ruggedly handsome, Christian Tucci was on his way to becoming one of the most sought after commercial models in Manila.

Yesterday, however, Filipinos had a different image of the 27-year-old Italian, who has modeled for some of the top clothing brands in the country including the underwear line of actress Joyce Jimenez.

Tucci was placed in handcuffs and led to a detention cell at the Bureau of Immigration for an armed robbery in Rome where a police officer was killed.

He was arrested Saturday in a café in Greenhills, San Juan, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo reported.

Tucci will be deported today to face charges of conniving with two uncles to rob a bank in Rome on June 13 and shooting to death a policeman who responded to the crime scene, Domingo said.

He will also be deported for being an undocumented alien as he refused to present his passport which, according to the Italian Embassy, has been canceled.

He will also be blacklisted and banned from re-entering the Philippines after his deportation, Domingo added.

Italian police said a judge in Velletri, Italy has issued arrest warrants for Tucci and his uncles Diego and Roberto Pedetta for the robbery of Banco Popolare del Lazio in Santa Maria delle Mole in Marino, Rome on June 13.

The Italian police said the three suspects using stolen vehicles, wearing masks and brandishing handguns, robbed the bank of some 670 euros and later shot vice brigadier Sandro Sciotti of the Italian Carabinieri who later died in the hospital.

Superintendent Winnie Quidato, BI chief legal investigator, said Tucci admitted during questioning that he left Italy for London shortly after the crime and proceeded to New York before traveling to Manila last Aug. 8.

Quidato said local authorities were alerted to Tucci’s presence in the country on Friday with a tip that another Italian, identified as Salvatorre delli Paoli, was arriving from Fiumicino, Italy to deliver a parcel to Tucci.

The arresting agents then tailed Paoli from the time he arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and went to a restaurant in Makati before proceeding to the Greenhills cafe where he met Tucci.