STRINGER/ITALY/REUTERS The gaudy funeral for mobster Vittorio Casamonicato mortified local officials, who saw it as a blatant love letter to the Mafia.

Mayor Ignazio Marino called Rome’s prefect demanding to know how such a scene could have taken place and tweeted that it was “intolerable that funerals are used by the living to send mafia messages”.

The head of a notorious Rome crime family was given a lavish funeral on Thursday, with a helicopter dropping red rose petals on mourners and a brass band playing the theme tune from the Godfather movie.

One read: “You conquered Rome, now you’ll conquer Paradise”.

The level of ostentation prompted Italy’s interior minister to demand an explanation from city officials – especially after reports that police and Carabinieri patrols accompanied the funeral procession.

Rosy Bindi, a member of Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) and president of parliament’s anti-mafia committee, said the funeral was “yet another wound for Rome and humiliated all Italians”.

Some 100 people are being investigated as part of the “Mafia Capital” inquiry into allegations that elected officials and business figures were part of a crime syndicate targeting Rome contracts.

Mourners carry Casamonica’s coffin The Casamonica clan have also been accused of racketeering, extortion and usury, according to Reuters.

The civil aviation authority ENAC said it was suspending the license of the pilot as a precaution, given that single-engine helicopters are prohibited from flying over the capital. It said the helicopter flew below the 330-metre limit and violated regulations by tossing out objects.

The funeral is the latest scandal to rock Rome following a summer of revelations of mafia-linked corruption among politicians and a breakdown in public transport and other services. “Ostentatious luxury, horses decorated in black, a carriage with golden decoration that probably not even Queen Elizabeth could afford”, said resident Walter Grubissa.

The affair threatens to become a headache for Renzi, who has seen his approval ratings plummet in recent months and has tried to distance himself from the problems of Rome.

The parish priest, the Rev Giancarlo Manieri, said that inside the church the funeral proceeded like any other and that he exercised no control over the theatrics outside the basilica.

Banners outside the San Giovanni Bosco church on the city’s outskirts described him as the “King of Rome”.