BBC News, 6
July 2013
Related
Stories
Colombian
police say they have caught the alleged boss of Italy's Calabrian mafia, who
they described as Europe's most wanted drugs trafficker.
Roberto
Pannunzi was detained in a shopping centre in the capital, Bogota, authorities
said.
He had been
on the run since 2010, when he fled from a clinic in Rome, where he was
receiving treatment as a prisoner.
Italian
prosecutors accuse Pannunzi of establishing the transatlantic cocaine trade
between Italy and Colombia.
As alleged
head of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, he is suspected of helping to
import up to two tonnes of cocaine into Europe per month.
The Italian
was detained on Friday with the help of the US Drug Enforcement Administration,
the Colombian defence ministry said in a statement.
"Pannunzi,
known as the Pablo Escobar of Italy, was the most wanted man in the
country," the defence ministry said in a twitter post.
"When
he was captured, Pannunzi identified himself with a fake Venezuelan
identification card bearing the name Silvano Martino," the ministry said.
Roberto
Pannunzi was first detained in Colombia in 1994 and extradited to Italy but was
released when his detention order expired.
He was
re-arrested in 2004 and later convicted. But he staged an dramatic escape from
a private hospital in Rome in 2010, where he was being treated for heart
disease.
Italian
authorities have described the 'Ndrangheta as the country's most dangerous and wealthiest
crime syndicate, overtaking the Sicilian Mafia and becoming one of the world's
biggest criminal organisations.
.
Related Article:
Pannunzi is
expected to serve out more than 16 years
of his sentence in Italy
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