An Italian influencer dubbed ‘the king of Milan’s nightlife’ who bragged about washing his Ferrari with champagne has been arrested on suspicion of running a drugs and prostitution ring.
David Lacerenza, 58, was accused of charging customers up to €10,000 (£8,375) a night for drugs, sex and booze at his bar, La Ginoteneria di Davide.
The bar has been seized by authorities and Lacerenza, a former fruit-and-vegetable stall owner turned entrepreneur, was arrested on Tuesday in an operation led by Italian tax police.
Stefania Nobile, his ex-partner and a well-known TV personality in Italy, was also arrested.
The pair are charged with self-laundering, aiding and abetting prostitution as well as possession and dealing of drugs, the Milan prosecutor’s office says.
Authorities began investigating Lacerenza, who has almost 260,000 followers on Instagram, after they were told that a 30-year-old Milan man, identified only as SS, spent €641,000 (£539,000) at the influencer’s bar.
During his police interview, the man also said he spent €50,000 (£42,000) in one night at the bar after Lacerenza took him to a smaller club where he was supplied with prostitutes.
In other instances, SS said Lacerenza would come to his house with multiple escorts.
Italian media quoted one regular at the bar, who described seeing naked women and ‘stupid, drunk rich kids whipping the corks off champagne bottles with their iPhones’.
Another customer says signs of drug-taking were evident in the bar’s bathroom.
‘I go to the loo and find a weighing scale with a glass plate for snorting [cocaine] off, but no paper towels to dry your hands — it was indecent,’ they said.
Investigators have traced €33,000 (£28,000) of Lacerenza’s earnings to a bank account in Lithuania.
Nobile, the influencer’s ex-partner, is the daughter of Wanna Marchi, a saleswoman who hosted a wildly successful TV show in the 1980s in which she marketed a slimming cream called Sciogli Pancia or Gut Melt.
Marchi and her daughter, who appeared with her on her show, were sentenced to jail in 2006 for fraud after selling lucky lottery numbers as well as amulets and packets of salt to ward off the evil eye.
They were the subject of a successful Netflix documentary, Wanna, in 2022.
In December, Milan’s citizens were left in shock after a Catholic nun was arrested over alleged links with members of one of Italy’s most notorious mafia families who were based in the city.
More Trending
A police raid on a mafia ring linked to the ‘Ndrangheta crime family in Lombardy, Italy, led to the arrest of over 20 people, including Sister Anna Donelli, 57.
Authorities launched an investigation into crimes ranging from extortion, arms and drug trafficking, to receiving stolen goods, usury, tax crimes and money laundering – and connections to Italian politics.
Sister Donelli has served as a volunteer in Milan and Brescia prisons for years, but is believed to have helped communicate between prisoners and those in the crime family.
According to investigators, she conveyed ‘messages between members of the criminal organisation and the individuals detained in prison who participate in or are in any case close’ to the gang’s branch in Milan.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: ‘Magical’ Venice-like village designed to look Mediterranean is actually in the UK
MORE: Brit facing death penalty hangs head in shame for ‘smuggling ecstasy into Bali’
MORE: Travel warning issued for Brits flying easyJet and Ryanair to popular European destination
