One of the most wanted mafia bosses in Italy has now been arrested in Brazil after escaping from a Uruguayan prison in 2019. Rocco Morabito was arrested during a joint operation by the Brazilian police and Interpol in the eastern Brazilian coastal city of Joao Pessoa, Justice Minister Anderson Torres announced on Twitter on Monday (local time). The 54-year-old Morabito, the so-called cocaine king of Milan, belongs to the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta, according to the Italian judiciary. He was caught in Uruguay in 2017, but in 2019 he fled the prison where he had been waiting to be extradited to Italy.
Italy has so far listed Morabito as one of the most dangerous refugees in the country.
He was wanted internationally for more than two decades and in absentia he was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for drug trafficking and belonging to the Mafia, among other things.
Since 1995 the Mafia boss has been on a wanted list in Italy as a member of the 'Ndrangheta.
He is said to have been involved in the international drug trade from 1988 to 1994.
He is said to have been responsible for the drug transport in Italy, for the distribution in Milan and for an attempted transport of 630 kilos of cocaine from Brazil in 1993.