Italian Mafia Boss Arrested In Corsica

Rome, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2024) A boss from one of most Italy's most violent mafias who escaped from a maximum security prison last year has been captured in France, authorities in both countries said Friday.

Marco Raduano, described as "dangerous" on Europol's list of Europe's most wanted criminals, was detained in Bastia on the French island of Corsica.

He had escaped from a heavily secured prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, in February 2023, using bedsheets to scale down the walls.

His "right-hand man", Gianluigi Troiano, was also picked up near Granada in Spain, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, in what he described as "another major blow against organised crime".

Raduano, 40, is the boss of the rural Gargano clan operating within a young and little-known organised crime syndicate in Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, known as Fourth Mafia.

He had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for membership of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking, holding illegal weapons and other crimes, according to Europol.

Europol said he was "at the top" of his criminal organisation, "with the role of promoter, organiser and ruthless killer of the group dedicated to the perpetration of murders, drug trafficking and management of the extortion racket", it said.