A suspected member of the Italian mafia arrested in France after 16 years on the run

EUROPE 1 with AFP 7:34 p.m., February 3, 2023

Italian Edgardo Greco, a suspected member of the powerful Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, was arrested Thursday in Saint-Etienne, in central-eastern France, after 16 years on the run, Interpol announced.

This sexagenarian sentenced to life imprisonment was arrested by the French police thanks to information from the Italian carabinieri, shared between the two partner countries thanks to the I-Can project (Interpol cooperation against the 'Ndrangheta).

The arrest took place around 1:40 am, in a city street.

Edgardo Greco, 63, was presented Thursday afternoon to a magistrate from the general prosecutor's office in Lyon who officially notified him of the arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities.

He expressed his refusal to be handed over to Italian justice and was placed in detention, according to the general prosecutor's office. 

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Sentenced to life imprisonment

"Great satisfaction for this important operation also carried out thanks to the important synergies developed within the framework of an international network of cooperation between the police forces. The arrests of dangerous fugitives continue", underlined on Twitter the Italian Minister of the Interior. Matteo Piantedosi, commenting on this arrest.

“The activity of law enforcement is unceasing, silently involved day after day, in Italy and abroad, in a continuous work to safeguard the safety of citizens,” he added.

"The strong action of the State against all forms of organized crime" will continue "with determination", he promised.

Edgardo Greco, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 in Italy for homicides, moved to France the same year, according to the general prosecutor's office.

He became the owner and manager of Caffé Rossini Ristorante, from June to November 2021, according to the same source.

According to testimonies and documents consulted by AFP, he called himself Paolo Dimitrio and had been employed in several Italian restaurants in Saint-Etienne.

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The former fugitive is involved in several murders

According to the Italian carabinieri, Edgardo Greco was the subject of a European arrest warrant in 2014 from the public prosecutor's office in Catanzaro (Calabria, southern Italy) after his life sentence for two murders committed in January 1991 and an attempted of murder in July 1991. The fugitive, described as "dangerous" by Interpol, had escaped while in police custody.

He was part of the Perna-Pranno clan at the time, which was the most important in the city of Cosenza, where he lived.

"He is considered jointly responsible for the ambush of January 5, 1991 which cost the lives of brothers Stefano and Giuseppe B. who wanted greater autonomy and consideration in the midst of the clans of Cosenza", explain the Italian carabinieri in a communicated.

The victims had been killed "with iron bars in a fish warehouse (...) and their bodies disappeared and were never found", according to the same source.

This arrest comes a week after a major police operation against the mafia raging in Calabria.

Some 300 law enforcement officers took part in this operation, seizing assets worth more than 250 million euros.

Hundreds of members of this organization are currently being tried in a maxi-trial.