Carabinieri officer Silvio Mirarchi died Wednesday after being wounded during an anti-drugs op in the countryside near Marsala in Sicily Tuesday. President Sergio Mattarella voiced his firm condemnation of a "brutal ambush that deprives the Carabinieri corps of a brave and exemplary servant of the State". Mattarella sent his condolences to the Carabinieri's high command asking them to pass on his sympathy to Mirarchi's family on behalf of the Italian people.
Premier Matteo Renzi called Carabinieri National Commander Tullio Del Sette to convey the government's sympathies to the corps and to the slain officer's family.
Mirarchi was reportedly undercover on a stakeout with a fellow officer in an area where a man had been shot and wounded while trying to steal plants from a marijuana plantation, and where the body of a Romanian national who had died under suspicious circumstances was discovered shortly after.