Together with his brother Pasquale he has become the "king of tendering" in construction, getting public contracts for the high-speed train Tav, a new prison, the local rail line and a NATO radar base.

[4][5] With Antonio Iovine, Zagaria represented the new face of management of the Camorra, forging strategic alliances with the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.

[3] According to Roberto Saviano, the writer of Gomorrah about the Camorra, it was Zagaria's "business acumen" that had "enabled his companies to triumph throughout Italy".

[6] He was sentenced, in absentia, to life on 15 January 2010, after 12-year trial—named the Spartacus Trial—against 36 members of the Casalesi clan, charged with a string of murders and other crimes.

Some embraced; others gave the V for Victory sign and punched the air amid cries of "Long live the police.