An influential mafia boss has been caught in Italy after a year on the run. Francesco Strangio of the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta was arrested in a hiding place in the province of Cosenza, the Italian police said. Strangio, who has been serving a 14-year prison sentence, was on the list of 100 most dangerous fugitive bosses.
He is a "true broker in international drug trafficking" and has organized cocaine smuggling from South America. For this he has maintained logistics centers throughout Italy and in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. With merchant ships, the drugs were smuggled into various ports in Europe, including Hamburg and Antwerp.
The 'Ndrangheta is, according to Italian investigators, the most powerful international mafia organization controlling the global cocaine trade. Also behind the mafia orders of Duisburg were the clans, which originate from the mountains of Calabria. Triggers of the killings in 2007 was a dispute between the clans Strangio-Nirta and Pelle-Vottari-Romeo. A direct connection to the current arrest should not exist.
Strangio had hid for more than a year in various places in the province of Cosenza, before he was now overwhelmed in a loft, the police said. Two suitcases with 8,000 euros would have been ready for the escape.
Just a few weeks ago, the police had succeeded in striking the Sicilian mafia: in a raid in Germany and Italy, suspects were arrested and eleven arrest warrants issued. The action was directed against the Cosa Nostra.