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Vittorio Brumotti is not your usual vigilante. But inside his native Italy, where the Hollywood-glamourised mafia continue to operate, he has emerged as an unlikely hero.
Brumotti built his profile performing high-risk stunts on his bike, chancing death or injury for the sake of social media video views.
Producers on long-running Italian show Striscia La Notizia have given the 35-year-old self-proclaimed ‘mafia hunter’ a regular segment on the show. His mission is to infiltrate the mafia and oust drug dealers.
With his face becoming increasingly recognisable thanks to his stunts and television work, he’s no longer able to go undercover himself. Instead, he works with teams including actors to infiltrate the criminal groups.
“This is the problem. And my mission is check the pushers, check the bad boys,” says Brumotti.
With a strong taste for danger, Brumotti also has an appetite to break the code of silence surrounding Southern Italy’s mafia.
Last December, Italian police members. Despite the crackdown, organised crime continues to operate throughout the , with members trafficking drugs, laundering money and extorting people.
But fame has earned the flamboyant investigator unwanted attention. He claims the Camorra (mafia in the Naples region) has put a price on his head.
