He guaranteed returns linked to sports betting and many entrusted him with large sums of money, which the leader of the Popolo della Famiglia used for luxury personal expenses.
Piras was filmed several times during his meetings in the park or at the bar with Moscow's agent: they had agreed on a price of 4 thousand euros for each secret information on Italian intelligence and armaments.
Gavino Raoul Piras, 59, has a background in the secret services, like his colleague who was arrested on the same charge: passing classified information to a contact in Moscow. Four others are under investigation.
In the house where he lived with his father in Conegliano, papers were seized on which he had written his intention to "commit violent acts with the use of knives or blades."