Italian mafia boss recaptured in France after jail break last year

Raduano had escaped from a heavily secured prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, in February 2023, using bedsheets to scale down the walls. (Photo/AFP)

A boss from one of most Italy's most violent mafias who escaped from a maximum security prison last year has been captured in France, authorities in both countries have said.

Marco Raduano, described as "dangerous" on Europol's list of Europe's most wanted criminals, was detained in Bastia on the French island of Corsica.

Europol said on Friday that Raduano was "at the top" of his criminal organisation, "with the role of promoter, organiser and ruthless killer of the group dedicated to the perpetration of murders, drug trafficking and management of the extortion racket", it said.

His "right-hand man", Gianluigi Troiano, was also picked up near Granada in Spain, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, in what he described as "another major blow against organised crime".

Raduano had escaped from a heavily secured prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, in February 2023, using bedsheets to scale down the walls.

Italy's most violent crime organization

Raduano, 40, is the boss of the rural Gargano clan operating within a young and little-known organised crime syndicate in Foggia, in the southern Italian region of Puglia, known as Fourth Mafia.

He had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for membership of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking, holding illegal weapons and other crimes, according to Europol.

His escape was hugely embarrassing for Italian authorities and underscored the power of the Fourth Mafia, today considered Italy's most violent organised crime syndicate.

Less sophisticated than the wealthy 'Ndrangheta, the Naples-based Camorra or Sicily's Cosa Nostra, the Foggia clans rely on extortions, bombings and threats to extort locals even as they engage in drug trafficking, armed robberies and vehicle and livestock theft.

Source: TRT