The French and Italian authorities announced this Friday, February 2, the arrest of the leader of an Italian mafia group, Marco Raduano, presented as “ dangerous » on the website of the most wanted people in the European Union. He was arrested the day before in Haute-Corse (France).
2 mins
Marco Raduano was recognized and arrested in Aléria, in eastern Corsica, while he was dining in a restaurant with a young woman. He was ” gently arrested by the research section of the Corsican gendarmerie “, specified a source close to the case to AFP, stressing that the man lived ” quite sparingly », armed with false papers and using a stolen, falsely registered vehicle.
The 40-year-old Italian criminal had disappeared from the radar for almost a year, on February 24, 2023. On social networks, his arrest is also accompanied by the video of his picturesque escape from prison. Detained in a high surveillance unit in Nuoro in Sardinia, he was filmed escaping through the window by sliding along knotted sheets, before fleeing.
Marco Raduano is presented by Europol as being the head of Societa Foggia. Considered the fourth mafia in Italy and currently the most violent, it operates in Puglia, in the heel of the Boot. The police described him as the “ group sponsor ” and one ” merciless killer “. He was serving a 24-year prison sentence for belonging to a mafia organization, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons and other crimes, according to Europol. In another ongoing case, he is accused of two murders committed in 2017.
His right-hand man, Gianluigi Troiano, was simultaneously arrested in Otura, near Granada, in southern Spain, according to a carabinieri press release. He had been on the run for more than two years. These arrests were made possible thanks to the efforts of Italian police officers “ and cooperation with French and Spanish law enforcement », greeted Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. They were carried out by members of a special group of Italian carabinieri ” with the support of the French gendarmerie and operational units of the Spanish Civil Guard “, specified the carabinieri.
“ The arrest abroad of two dangerous fugitives, boss Marco Raduano and his right-hand man Gianluigi Troiano (…) represents a new blow to crime “, declared Matteo Piantedosi on his ministry’s account on X, formerly Twitter. The two men must now be extradited to Italy.
(With AFP)