The first of eight children, he leaves elementary school very early and joins his uncle, in close contact with the capobastone (head of command) of Gioiosa Ionica, Rocco Amleto Monteleone, known as " Roccu u Regginu ", managing the business of his uncle and Monteleone, in the market fruit first, and market fish after.

In September of the same year, Mario Corino, unionist and future mayor of Bardonecchia was attacked and beaten at night by strangers.

At Exilles, along the Val di Susa provincial road, the body of Vincenzo Timpano from Grotteria, Calabria was found.

The body of Luigi D'Aguanno was found in an abandoned landfill at Moncalieri, a professional fence just released from prison.

Through threats, intimidation and abuse of all kinds, he had managed to control the construction workforce in Val di Susa.

Leonardo Ferrero, reporter of l’Unità, who was doing a service on building speculation in Val di Susa was threatened by Lo Presti.

[13] In May 1972, Giovanni Rosace said, in Bardonecchia was an intense traffic of arms and precious items coming from Marseilles controlled by Lo Presti.

[14] In the same period, a report by the carabinieri claimed that Lo Presti controlled five clandestine gambling dens in Turin.

In 1973 the Parliamentary Antimafia Commission, drawn by the numerous articles in the newspapers, made an inspection on the territory of Bardonecchia, and confirmed the presence of organized crime, identifying Lo Presti as the 'Ndrangheta boss of the city.

[16][17] Due to the report in 1975, Lo Presti was accused to having all the workforce in the construction industry under his control, and at the request of the public prosecutor at the Court of Turin Bruno Caccia, the judge murdered by the 'Ndrangheta of Turin in 1983, Lo Presti was sentenced to three years in exile in the prison on the island of Asinara.

[18] On the island, he knew many mafia figures, Luciano Leggio, Tommaso Buscetta, Ignazio Pullarà from Palermo, Giuseppe Di Cristina from Riesi, Rocco Gioffrè from Seminara, Francesco Barbaro from Platì.

In February 1976 Lo Presti was taken from the prison of the island of Asinara because he was accused of being the instigator of the Mario Ceretto kidnapping-murder, a wealthy industrialist of Cuorgnè found buried in a field in Orbassano.

[24][25] In July 1977, three hooded killers and armed with lupara killed Giuseppe Zucco, originally from Ciminà, in Calabria tied to Lo Presti.

Even Caggegi, who accused him of kidnapping Ceretto, when knew of Lo Presti's arrival in the Le Nuove prison in Turin, took refuge on the roofs of the penitentiary for three days for fear of reprisals.

In 1993, Lo Presti's nephew, Giuseppe Ursino, was arrested in Bardonecchia, along with fifteen other people for arms and drug trafficking.

[39] In 1991 Pierluigi Leone, chief police commissioner of Bardonecchia was suddenly transferred to Calabria without reason, just two months after his arrival.

In April 2001, during the trial Campo Smith, a government witness, said in prison by a certain Musuraci detained in Spain, of a possible Lo Presti involvement, together with the Belfiore and Ursini crime families, in the murder of the Turin chief prosecutor, Bruno Caccia.

Due to constant pressure from the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, Lo Presti was forced to cede the command scepter to his nephews, the brothers Luciano and Giuseppe Ursino.

Convinced then, from so many years of impunity, that in the event of judicial troubles, at most they could forbid him to leave Bardonecchia, the law that established the obligatory stay, in the place of residence.

In 2003, on the eve of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, he began to talk about tenders in Val di Susa.

The Works Director of the Turin-Bardonecchia highway (Autostrada A32), and the Turin Agency for 2006 Winter Olympics, received envelopes with bullets.

In April 2004, the Ursinos approached a politician to try to obtain European Union funding, and set up a millionaire wear ring, that extended from Bardonecchia to Turin.

Among the victims strangled by usury, there was a well-known political figure, who denounced the organization, and in November 2006 Rocco Lo Presti was arrested along with his nephews Ursinos.

Lo Presti died of a heart attack on January 23, 2009, in the department detainment of the Molinette Hospital in Turin at the age of 72, the day after he was sentenced to six years for criminal association with the mafia.