Over 100 million euros worth of assets seized in Messina. Illicit funds from the mafia clan from Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto reinvested in numerous legitimate enterprises - "assets and corporate structures, social cooperatives and agricultural-wildlife companies, public entertainment venues, hotels real estate (including numerous villas of considerable value) in the Milazzese and Nebroidea area.
https://messina.gds.it/articoli/cronaca ... 0e036986d/
News from Italy
Moderator: Capos
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aleksandrored
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aleksandrored
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Re: News from Italy
Mafia, the "social function" of the clans in the Cosa Nostra of 2021
PALERMO - The mafia, according to tradition and despite the investigative pressure, continues to have a social presence in the area where it exercises petty justice functions. This was stated by the president of the Palermo Court of Appeal, Matteo Frasca, in the report that will open the judicial year tomorrow.
The men of Cosa Nostra, according to what emerges from the investigations of the judiciary, impose their mediation to resolve issues of all kinds: from disputes between families for sentimental reasons to the occupation of social housing, from the payment of rents to the start of economic activities in competition with other entities. The mafia also offers a "service" for debt collection and the recovery of stolen assets. The mafia presence in the social life of the area is also demonstrated by some surveys on neighborhood parties. Men close to Cosa Nostra are responsible for hiring neo-melodic singers, organizing expenses and, in some cases, supporting families in need. An investigation found that the mafia provided basic necessities to family groups.
In general, according to Frasca, the mafia has strengthened its presence and strengthened the "social function" - underlines Matteo Frasca in his speech - in order to maintain control of the territory and broaden the basis of consent, which is necessary, as well as the strength of intimidation, for the survival of the association ". But positive signals come precisely from the territory. Frasca reports a notable increase in the complaints presented by extortion victims who thus express the "willingness to collaborate without reserve with justice". However, the rebellion against the protection money shows itself in patches: while in the district of Porta Nuova as many as fifteen entrepreneurs, especially in the construction sector, have fully indicated the men of the racket, in the district of Ciaculli-Brancaccio "not a single victim of extortion was come forward ".
PALERMO - The mafia, according to tradition and despite the investigative pressure, continues to have a social presence in the area where it exercises petty justice functions. This was stated by the president of the Palermo Court of Appeal, Matteo Frasca, in the report that will open the judicial year tomorrow.
The men of Cosa Nostra, according to what emerges from the investigations of the judiciary, impose their mediation to resolve issues of all kinds: from disputes between families for sentimental reasons to the occupation of social housing, from the payment of rents to the start of economic activities in competition with other entities. The mafia also offers a "service" for debt collection and the recovery of stolen assets. The mafia presence in the social life of the area is also demonstrated by some surveys on neighborhood parties. Men close to Cosa Nostra are responsible for hiring neo-melodic singers, organizing expenses and, in some cases, supporting families in need. An investigation found that the mafia provided basic necessities to family groups.
In general, according to Frasca, the mafia has strengthened its presence and strengthened the "social function" - underlines Matteo Frasca in his speech - in order to maintain control of the territory and broaden the basis of consent, which is necessary, as well as the strength of intimidation, for the survival of the association ". But positive signals come precisely from the territory. Frasca reports a notable increase in the complaints presented by extortion victims who thus express the "willingness to collaborate without reserve with justice". However, the rebellion against the protection money shows itself in patches: while in the district of Porta Nuova as many as fifteen entrepreneurs, especially in the construction sector, have fully indicated the men of the racket, in the district of Ciaculli-Brancaccio "not a single victim of extortion was come forward ".
Re: News from Italy
Good info. Plays into the issues with cattle ranching and swimming pools that came out of recent cases.
Re: News from Italy
REIGN OF TERROR Inside Italy’s most brutal mafia clan who execute enemies in ‘Ritual of Death’ with point blank shotgun blasts to face
https://www.the-sun.com/news/4624213/in ... -foggiana/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/4624213/in ... -foggiana/
All roads lead to New York.
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johnny_scootch
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Re: News from Italy
From surgeon to mafia boss: Giuseppe Guttadauro in the cell
Arrested with his son on his way back from Morocco
https://www.unionesarda.it/en/italy/fro ... l-m15ps05y
Arrested with his son on his way back from Morocco
https://www.unionesarda.it/en/italy/fro ... l-m15ps05y
Re: News from Italy
Guttadauro's are one of most powerful families in sicilian mafia.JoeNGallo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 13, 2022 9:19 am From surgeon to mafia boss: Giuseppe Guttadauro in the cell
Arrested with his son on his way back from Morocco
https://www.unionesarda.it/en/italy/fro ... l-m15ps05y
Re: News from Italy
Article in the Wall Street Journal on Sacra Corona UNITA
EUROPE
Pay or Burn: An Italian Mafia’s Message to Businesses
A southern Italian province thought it had the local mafia on the run. Now the mob is fighting back, with a wave of arson and bomb attacks.
Dario Melillo, owner of a beach resort destroyed in an arson attack in late January, stood amid the still smoldering remains of the building in Foggia, Italy, earlier this month.
By Giovanni Legorano Photographs by Gianni Cipriano for The Wall Street Journal
Feb. 12, 2022 11:00 am ET
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TEXT
Listen to article
Length 9 minutes
FOGGIA, Italy—On a November morning, Gianpaolo Romano found an unsigned letter under the glass entrance of his car showroom in this south Italian province known for its pristine beaches, vast tomato fields and, these days, a ruthless local mafia.
The message said he had to pay €250,000, equivalent to $286,000, to be safe. It didn’t say to whom he had to pay the pizzo, or protection money, but that he should find them himself. They knew his habits and where his family lived, the letter said. It was the first time he had received such a demand.
Mr. Romano and his two brothers, who co-own the family business founded in 1964, decided not to pay, and to report the threat to the police.
At dawn on Jan. 4, a bomb mixing gunpowder with nails and bolts blew out all of the showroom’s windows, badly damaged three cars on display, and left holes in the metal shutter of the store opposite.
“We don’t regret reporting it, even though we don’t feel safe now,” Mr. Romano said.
The blast at Mr. Romano’s showroom inaugurated a series of attacks previously unseen in the Foggia province, in the southern region of Puglia, the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.
Fourteen shops or businesses have suffered bomb or arson attacks since the start of this year, according to Foggia’s anti-extortion association.
An aerial view of Foggia, Italy, in the southern region of Puglia, the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.
The wave of violence marks an attempt by Foggia’s mafia to reassert its power, after a crackdown by Italian authorities in recent years led to the arrest of hundreds of local Mafiosi, said judicial officials and business owners.
The local mob, which has been active in the area for three decades, is often referred to as the Fourth Mafia, because it is smaller and less notorious than the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the ’Ndrangheta from Calabria or the Camorra from Naples.
Pending criminal trials in Foggia have grown to more than 12,000, compared with 9,700 four years ago, largely thanks to the authorities’ mob crackdown, said Foggia’s Chief Prosecutor Ludovico Vaccaro.
Puglia is one of the richer regions in southern Italy. But Foggia, with its mafia problem, is one of the poorest parts of Puglia.
The showroom of Gianpaolo Romano’s car dealership suffered a bomb attack in early January.
Unemployment in Foggia runs at 25%, one of Italy’s highest rates and roughly double the rest of Puglia. Many people have only seasonal jobs in tourism or the large tomato and wheat fields. The young often emigrate to Italy’s wealthier north or abroad. Over the past 20 years, Foggia’s population has declined by 13% to 600,000.
Extortion has been the local mob’s mainstay, to the point that 80% of Foggia’s business were believed until recently to be paying the pizzo, said Antonio Laronga, a Foggia magistrate and author of a book about the local mafia. Few ever report demands for protection money to the police, magistrates say.
“We even found that some entrepreneurs spontaneously contacted the mob and offered to pay,” said Mr. Laronga.
But the Fourth Mafia also smuggles via Albania most of the marijuana that enters Italy, said Mr. Laronga, and has often robbed security vans on highways, armed with Kalashnikovs.
The Fourth Mafia suffered major setbacks beginning in 2017. In August that year, two local Mafiosi, including clan boss Mario Romito, were killed on a country road near the village of San Marco in Lamis by rival gangsters who drove up alongside their car and opened fire with Kalashnikovs. It was the latest in a string of killings in a feud between the Romito clan and the rival Li Bergolis family, according to Mr. Laronga.
Two farmers, who saw the August shooting and tried to run away, were pursued by the killers and shot dead.
The interior of a local business burned down by a fire from a bomb attack in the area around Foggia, Italy.
The slaying of the two witnesses shocked the province and led to a crackdown by Italian authorities, including investigations by specialist anti-mafia prosecutors. A small number of Mafiosi turned informants, helping prosecutors to build their case, according to magistrates.
Hundreds of suspected mobsters were arrested in the following years, including 32 in December last year, on charges ranging from extortion and drugs and arms trafficking to membership in a mafia organization.
The arrests gave more local entrepreneurs the confidence to report attempts at extortion last year, compared with previous years, prosecutors said.
But the Fourth Mafia is fighting back. The wave of recent attacks on local businesses, showing a ferocity not seen before, show that the mob is trying to re-establish the climate of fear that allowed it to dominate the province for years, prosecutors and business owners say.
Ludovico Vaccaro, district attorney of Foggia.
“I think it is a sign of their vitality,” said Foggia’s chief prosecutor, Mr. Vaccaro. “We have put a lot of pressure on them, but they are still very active. I am worried.”
Law enforcement in Foggia is chronically understaffed for the amount of crimes committed in the area, Mr. Vaccaro said. His team of 25 prosecutors needs more recruits, but it is hard to persuade people to apply for jobs here, he said.
In mid-January, as the bombings and arson attacks multiplied, Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese held an emergency meeting in Foggia with local police chiefs, prosecutors and business owners. “The state needs to make its presence felt in a strong, decisive and united way,” Ms. Lamorgese told the meeting. She promised to send an additional 50 police officers to Foggia.
Events leading up to mafia attacks often follow the same script.
First, business owners receive a demand for protection money. If they ignore or report it, then a few weeks later their business is burned down or bombed, according to Alessandro Zito, president of Foggia’s anti-extortion association, a group created in January to support entrepreneurs.
A hairdresser from the area said he received the first request for a €250,000 “insurance” payment in October. He ignored it, hoping it was a sick joke. A few days later, he received a second, identical written request.
In mid-January, a bomb exploded at the entrance of his hair salon, setting fire to furniture and hair sprays inside, and gutting the salon. Rebuilding it will cost up to €160,000, the owner estimated.
More entrepreneurs have reported mob threats to the police, but many others opt to keep quiet and pay the pizzo.
“I am sorry to say this, but people here have not been very collaborative,” said Mr. Vaccaro.
Lazzaro D'Auria, owner of an agricultural company, has been living under police protection for years.
Farmer Lazzaro D’Auria is among those who refuse to bow to the mob.
In 2017, he said, he was alone in one of his tomato fields when he was surrounded by 10 Mafiosi. Over the previous two years he had repeatedly refused to meet the mafia’s demand for an annual pizzo of €200,000, Mr. D’Auria said.
The men threatened to harm him and his family, he said, but lowered their demand to €150,000 a year. He reported them to the police.
Since then he has lived under police protection. He testified in a trial, where five of the Mafiosi who threatened him were convicted. But the mob didn’t forget him. Over the past six years, he has suffered six bombings, 15 robberies and vandalism of his farm machinery, he said.
The remains of Lazzaro D'Auria's storage facility that was set on fire in August 2021 in San Severo, Italy.
Over the years, Lazzaro D'Auria, has suffered numerous bombings, robberies and acts of vandalism on his equipment.
“In the beginning I thought about shutting the business,” Mr. D’Auria said, while three policemen in casual clothes watched over him from a few yards away. “But then I said to myself: Why on earth do I have to throw away everything I have created in 25 years?”
In some cases, the clans have attacked businesses with no warning or demand for money. Prosecutors say such tactics are part of the mob’s effort to show their power and reassert their control of the area.
“All the attacks are an advertising spot to show that they are still alive, still present, a sort of marketing tool,” said Mr. Laronga.
The courthouse in Foggia, Italy.
In other cases, minor vandalism sends a hint that an entrepreneur should seek out the mafia and pay for protection. Refusal is followed later by fire.
Such was the experience of Dario Melillo whose beach resort was destroyed by an arson attack in late January. The only previous hint that the mafia was targeting him emerged last summer, when someone cut holes in the resort’s plastic water tanks, he said. He reported it to the police.
“My only ambition was to be able to work in an honest way,” Mr. Melillo said, amid the still-smoking rubble of his beach resort. “This isn’t a message only for me, it is for everybody in this land
EUROPE
Pay or Burn: An Italian Mafia’s Message to Businesses
A southern Italian province thought it had the local mafia on the run. Now the mob is fighting back, with a wave of arson and bomb attacks.
Dario Melillo, owner of a beach resort destroyed in an arson attack in late January, stood amid the still smoldering remains of the building in Foggia, Italy, earlier this month.
By Giovanni Legorano Photographs by Gianni Cipriano for The Wall Street Journal
Feb. 12, 2022 11:00 am ET
SHARE
TEXT
Listen to article
Length 9 minutes
FOGGIA, Italy—On a November morning, Gianpaolo Romano found an unsigned letter under the glass entrance of his car showroom in this south Italian province known for its pristine beaches, vast tomato fields and, these days, a ruthless local mafia.
The message said he had to pay €250,000, equivalent to $286,000, to be safe. It didn’t say to whom he had to pay the pizzo, or protection money, but that he should find them himself. They knew his habits and where his family lived, the letter said. It was the first time he had received such a demand.
Mr. Romano and his two brothers, who co-own the family business founded in 1964, decided not to pay, and to report the threat to the police.
At dawn on Jan. 4, a bomb mixing gunpowder with nails and bolts blew out all of the showroom’s windows, badly damaged three cars on display, and left holes in the metal shutter of the store opposite.
“We don’t regret reporting it, even though we don’t feel safe now,” Mr. Romano said.
The blast at Mr. Romano’s showroom inaugurated a series of attacks previously unseen in the Foggia province, in the southern region of Puglia, the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.
Fourteen shops or businesses have suffered bomb or arson attacks since the start of this year, according to Foggia’s anti-extortion association.
An aerial view of Foggia, Italy, in the southern region of Puglia, the heel of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula.
The wave of violence marks an attempt by Foggia’s mafia to reassert its power, after a crackdown by Italian authorities in recent years led to the arrest of hundreds of local Mafiosi, said judicial officials and business owners.
The local mob, which has been active in the area for three decades, is often referred to as the Fourth Mafia, because it is smaller and less notorious than the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the ’Ndrangheta from Calabria or the Camorra from Naples.
Pending criminal trials in Foggia have grown to more than 12,000, compared with 9,700 four years ago, largely thanks to the authorities’ mob crackdown, said Foggia’s Chief Prosecutor Ludovico Vaccaro.
Puglia is one of the richer regions in southern Italy. But Foggia, with its mafia problem, is one of the poorest parts of Puglia.
The showroom of Gianpaolo Romano’s car dealership suffered a bomb attack in early January.
Unemployment in Foggia runs at 25%, one of Italy’s highest rates and roughly double the rest of Puglia. Many people have only seasonal jobs in tourism or the large tomato and wheat fields. The young often emigrate to Italy’s wealthier north or abroad. Over the past 20 years, Foggia’s population has declined by 13% to 600,000.
Extortion has been the local mob’s mainstay, to the point that 80% of Foggia’s business were believed until recently to be paying the pizzo, said Antonio Laronga, a Foggia magistrate and author of a book about the local mafia. Few ever report demands for protection money to the police, magistrates say.
“We even found that some entrepreneurs spontaneously contacted the mob and offered to pay,” said Mr. Laronga.
But the Fourth Mafia also smuggles via Albania most of the marijuana that enters Italy, said Mr. Laronga, and has often robbed security vans on highways, armed with Kalashnikovs.
The Fourth Mafia suffered major setbacks beginning in 2017. In August that year, two local Mafiosi, including clan boss Mario Romito, were killed on a country road near the village of San Marco in Lamis by rival gangsters who drove up alongside their car and opened fire with Kalashnikovs. It was the latest in a string of killings in a feud between the Romito clan and the rival Li Bergolis family, according to Mr. Laronga.
Two farmers, who saw the August shooting and tried to run away, were pursued by the killers and shot dead.
The interior of a local business burned down by a fire from a bomb attack in the area around Foggia, Italy.
The slaying of the two witnesses shocked the province and led to a crackdown by Italian authorities, including investigations by specialist anti-mafia prosecutors. A small number of Mafiosi turned informants, helping prosecutors to build their case, according to magistrates.
Hundreds of suspected mobsters were arrested in the following years, including 32 in December last year, on charges ranging from extortion and drugs and arms trafficking to membership in a mafia organization.
The arrests gave more local entrepreneurs the confidence to report attempts at extortion last year, compared with previous years, prosecutors said.
But the Fourth Mafia is fighting back. The wave of recent attacks on local businesses, showing a ferocity not seen before, show that the mob is trying to re-establish the climate of fear that allowed it to dominate the province for years, prosecutors and business owners say.
Ludovico Vaccaro, district attorney of Foggia.
“I think it is a sign of their vitality,” said Foggia’s chief prosecutor, Mr. Vaccaro. “We have put a lot of pressure on them, but they are still very active. I am worried.”
Law enforcement in Foggia is chronically understaffed for the amount of crimes committed in the area, Mr. Vaccaro said. His team of 25 prosecutors needs more recruits, but it is hard to persuade people to apply for jobs here, he said.
In mid-January, as the bombings and arson attacks multiplied, Italy’s Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese held an emergency meeting in Foggia with local police chiefs, prosecutors and business owners. “The state needs to make its presence felt in a strong, decisive and united way,” Ms. Lamorgese told the meeting. She promised to send an additional 50 police officers to Foggia.
Events leading up to mafia attacks often follow the same script.
First, business owners receive a demand for protection money. If they ignore or report it, then a few weeks later their business is burned down or bombed, according to Alessandro Zito, president of Foggia’s anti-extortion association, a group created in January to support entrepreneurs.
A hairdresser from the area said he received the first request for a €250,000 “insurance” payment in October. He ignored it, hoping it was a sick joke. A few days later, he received a second, identical written request.
In mid-January, a bomb exploded at the entrance of his hair salon, setting fire to furniture and hair sprays inside, and gutting the salon. Rebuilding it will cost up to €160,000, the owner estimated.
More entrepreneurs have reported mob threats to the police, but many others opt to keep quiet and pay the pizzo.
“I am sorry to say this, but people here have not been very collaborative,” said Mr. Vaccaro.
Lazzaro D'Auria, owner of an agricultural company, has been living under police protection for years.
Farmer Lazzaro D’Auria is among those who refuse to bow to the mob.
In 2017, he said, he was alone in one of his tomato fields when he was surrounded by 10 Mafiosi. Over the previous two years he had repeatedly refused to meet the mafia’s demand for an annual pizzo of €200,000, Mr. D’Auria said.
The men threatened to harm him and his family, he said, but lowered their demand to €150,000 a year. He reported them to the police.
Since then he has lived under police protection. He testified in a trial, where five of the Mafiosi who threatened him were convicted. But the mob didn’t forget him. Over the past six years, he has suffered six bombings, 15 robberies and vandalism of his farm machinery, he said.
The remains of Lazzaro D'Auria's storage facility that was set on fire in August 2021 in San Severo, Italy.
Over the years, Lazzaro D'Auria, has suffered numerous bombings, robberies and acts of vandalism on his equipment.
“In the beginning I thought about shutting the business,” Mr. D’Auria said, while three policemen in casual clothes watched over him from a few yards away. “But then I said to myself: Why on earth do I have to throw away everything I have created in 25 years?”
In some cases, the clans have attacked businesses with no warning or demand for money. Prosecutors say such tactics are part of the mob’s effort to show their power and reassert their control of the area.
“All the attacks are an advertising spot to show that they are still alive, still present, a sort of marketing tool,” said Mr. Laronga.
The courthouse in Foggia, Italy.
In other cases, minor vandalism sends a hint that an entrepreneur should seek out the mafia and pay for protection. Refusal is followed later by fire.
Such was the experience of Dario Melillo whose beach resort was destroyed by an arson attack in late January. The only previous hint that the mafia was targeting him emerged last summer, when someone cut holes in the resort’s plastic water tanks, he said. He reported it to the police.
“My only ambition was to be able to work in an honest way,” Mr. Melillo said, amid the still-smoking rubble of his beach resort. “This isn’t a message only for me, it is for everybody in this land
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scagghiuni
- Full Patched
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 7:04 am
Re: News from Italy
Massive operation targets Messina Mafia
Police arrest 86 people in Sicily and Calabria
(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 22 - Carabinieri police staged a massive operation in Sicily and in the neighbouring region of Calabria on the mainland on Tuesday to execute arrest warrants and other restrictive orders on 86 people accused of involvement in a Mafia clan in the province of Messina.
The suspects are accused of crimes including mafia association, drug trafficking and dealing and the exploitation of prostitution, with the use of mafia methods an aggravating factor.
Among other things, investigators say that Mariano Foti , a mobster based in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, had been seeking to muscle in on contracts linked to the 'eco bonus 110%' rebate for building work that improves energy efficiency via contacts with entrepreneurs and local politicians. (ANSA).
Police arrest 86 people in Sicily and Calabria
(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 22 - Carabinieri police staged a massive operation in Sicily and in the neighbouring region of Calabria on the mainland on Tuesday to execute arrest warrants and other restrictive orders on 86 people accused of involvement in a Mafia clan in the province of Messina.
The suspects are accused of crimes including mafia association, drug trafficking and dealing and the exploitation of prostitution, with the use of mafia methods an aggravating factor.
Among other things, investigators say that Mariano Foti , a mobster based in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, had been seeking to muscle in on contracts linked to the 'eco bonus 110%' rebate for building work that improves energy efficiency via contacts with entrepreneurs and local politicians. (ANSA).
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scagghiuni
- Full Patched
- Posts: 1138
- Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 7:04 am
Re: News from Italy
Italian police announced Wednesday the seizure of assets worth more than 800 million euros (1.15 billion Canadian dollars) belonging to three brothers suspected of links with the Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta.
https://actualnewsmagazine.com/english/ ... -calabria/
https://actualnewsmagazine.com/english/ ... -calabria/
Re: News from Italy
Rocco Morabito’s extradition broom Brazil to Italy has been approved
Brazil to Extradite ‘Cocaine King of Milan’ to Italy
Print article Published: 11 March 2022
WRITTEN BY VINICIUS MADUREIRA
Share
One of the most wanted fugitives in Europe may be on his way home to Italy soon after Brazil’s Supreme Court Tuesday approved the extradition of the drug lord Rocco Morabito.
One of the most wanted fugitives in Europe may be on his way home to Italy soon after Brazil’s Supreme Court approved the extradition of the drug lord Rocco Morabito.
Italian authorities say he is a leader of southwest Italy's ‘Ndrangheta mafia and has been called the Cocaine King of Milan.
Morabito, they say, has been involved in organized crime since the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he moved to Brazil under a fake identity, passing himself off as a Brazilian national involved in agribusiness.
Later Morabito established himself in Uruguay, a small country south of Brazil. Police say he lived a swanky life in the city of Punta del Este, known as a resort for Latin and North American jet-setters and tourists.
Although Morabito was on Interpol’s list of the world’s most wanted criminals, he managed to stay under the radar until 2017, when he apparently used his real name to register his daughter at school. Uruguayan authorities arrested him in the lobby of a hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital.
After serving two years in a Montevideo prison, Morabito and three other foreigners escaped just before he was to be extradited to Italy, the Uruguayan Interior Minister said.
Uruguay’s director of prisons, Alberto Gadea, resigned during investigations into which prison officials were involved in the escapes.
Morabito was arrested again in May 2021 in northern Brazil, OCCRP reported.
Morabito had been sentenced in absentia to 30 years after being convicted by Italian courts of four counts related to international drug trafficking and involvement with a mafia-type criminal organization, ‘Ndrangheta.
Morabito’s lawyer has tried to block the extradition process, even seeking political asylum for him. Supreme Court judges have said that the sentences imposed by Italian courts are common crimes, not political ones, adding that “Italy is a democracy.”
Morabito’s future is now in the hands of Brazilian President Jair Bolosonaro, who may or may not authorize the extradition.
Brazil to Extradite ‘Cocaine King of Milan’ to Italy
Print article Published: 11 March 2022
WRITTEN BY VINICIUS MADUREIRA
Share
One of the most wanted fugitives in Europe may be on his way home to Italy soon after Brazil’s Supreme Court Tuesday approved the extradition of the drug lord Rocco Morabito.
One of the most wanted fugitives in Europe may be on his way home to Italy soon after Brazil’s Supreme Court approved the extradition of the drug lord Rocco Morabito.
Italian authorities say he is a leader of southwest Italy's ‘Ndrangheta mafia and has been called the Cocaine King of Milan.
Morabito, they say, has been involved in organized crime since the late 1980s. In the early 1990s, he moved to Brazil under a fake identity, passing himself off as a Brazilian national involved in agribusiness.
Later Morabito established himself in Uruguay, a small country south of Brazil. Police say he lived a swanky life in the city of Punta del Este, known as a resort for Latin and North American jet-setters and tourists.
Although Morabito was on Interpol’s list of the world’s most wanted criminals, he managed to stay under the radar until 2017, when he apparently used his real name to register his daughter at school. Uruguayan authorities arrested him in the lobby of a hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital.
After serving two years in a Montevideo prison, Morabito and three other foreigners escaped just before he was to be extradited to Italy, the Uruguayan Interior Minister said.
Uruguay’s director of prisons, Alberto Gadea, resigned during investigations into which prison officials were involved in the escapes.
Morabito was arrested again in May 2021 in northern Brazil, OCCRP reported.
Morabito had been sentenced in absentia to 30 years after being convicted by Italian courts of four counts related to international drug trafficking and involvement with a mafia-type criminal organization, ‘Ndrangheta.
Morabito’s lawyer has tried to block the extradition process, even seeking political asylum for him. Supreme Court judges have said that the sentences imposed by Italian courts are common crimes, not political ones, adding that “Italy is a democracy.”
Morabito’s future is now in the hands of Brazilian President Jair Bolosonaro, who may or may not authorize the extradition.
Re: News from Italy
Great info -- thanks Savior.
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PolackTony
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Re: News from Italy
Interesting that it’s been asserted that Francesco Domingo indeed has a familial link back to Maranzano’s aunt.
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”