A convicted Italian hitman believed to belong to one of the country’s most powerful mafia groups was arrested in France on Thursday after a 16-year run, Interpol said.
Edgardo Greco, 63, is suspected of belonging to the notorious “Ndrangheta”, a powerful mafia group in Calabria in southern Italy.
Wanted in Italy, he is serving a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, and is charged with the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro, “a Pino in the early 1990s. Part of the mafia war between the Sena and Perna Pranno gangs,” Interpol said.
Italian police say the Bartolomeo brothers were beaten to death with iron bars in the fish bank.
El Greco was arrested in central France thanks to the help of Italy and France under Interpol’s “Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta Project'” (I-CAN), which facilitates interpolation among its 195 member states. police cooperation.
The Interpol statement quoted Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi as saying the arrests showed the country’s commitment to “fighting all forms of organized crime and finding dangerous fugitives”.
Interpol said the Ndrangheta is considered the most extensive and powerful Italian mafia group operating globally and has strong ties to the cocaine trade from South America to Europe
The agency said I-CAN works to help raise awareness about the Ndrangheta and its modus operandi, sharing police information to disrupt their networks and operations.
Greco worked nights at a pizzeria, according to Italian media reports, a week after Italian police said they had dismantled a Ndrangheta mafia gang that controlled a large swath of southern Calabria and seized more than $250 in assets. billion euros ($270 million).
Police and prosecutors say 56 people, many of whom have been jailed, are under criminal investigation for a range of offenses including mafia-related conspiracy, racketeering, kidnapping, bribery and weapons possession.
Just over two weeks after Greek police arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the Sicilian mafia’s most notorious leaders, Italian police arrested him after 30 years on the run.
The 60-year-old was arrested after going to a clinic in the Sicilian capital Palermo for treatment
