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Marco Raduano after his arrest in Bastia, Corsica
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AFP
A year after escaping from a high-security prison in Italy, a wanted mafia boss has been caught on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Marco Raduano was arrested in Bastia, the authorities of both countries announced on Friday. The 40-year-old was on the European police authority Europol's list of most wanted criminals. According to reports from the Sardinian media, Raduano was caught in a high-end restaurant in the presence of his wife. This is the same unit that seized Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro a year ago.
In addition to Raduano, his accomplice Gianluigi Troiano was also arrested in Spain in a cross-border operation. Troiano was reportedly caught while picking up a package from a service point. "The arrest of two dangerous fugitives abroad represents another hard blow to crime," wrote Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi on the online network X, formerly known as Twitter.
Escape without pursuers
Raduano is the head of the “Società Foggiana”, a mafia gang from Foggia in Apulia that is considered brutal. He escaped from the maximum security wing of a prison in Sardinia in February last year. Surveillance cameras later showed him scaling the prison wall using knotted sheets. The escape over the wall took 16 seconds and he fled on foot without the guards noticing or pursuing him. Following the events, an internal investigation was launched at the prison.
According to Europol, Marco Raduano served a 24-year prison sentence in the prison in Sardinia. The 40-year-old is accused of murder, extortion and drug trafficking, among other things.
sol/AFP