Ah mafia A killer on the run for 16 years was arrested Thursday in France, where he worked as a pizza chef.
Authorities say Edgardo Greco, 63, who was linked to the notorious Italian criminal group ndranghetha and was convicted of killing two people in the early 1990s, was arrested in the city of Saint-Etienne in southeastern France. I was arrested by the police.
Greco was considered a dangerous fugitive and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of brothers Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo in 1991. “Their bodies went missing and were never found again,” police said.
Greco is also accused of attempted murder in another case.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, Greco worked as a pizza chef at an Italian restaurant in France. Italian police have released a photo of Greco in a chef’s white coat standing in what is believed to be the restaurant’s kitchen.
Interpol, the international police agency that coordinated the case with French and Italian law enforcement, said Greco’s crimes were linked to the early 1990s “mafia wars” between Pinocena and Pernaplano organized in the Cosenza region of southern Italy. said to be related.
He was found responsible for two deaths in the so-called Maxi trial, which prosecuted and convicted hundreds of Mafia operatives between 1986 and 1992.
After Greco escaped police custody in October 2006, the Catanzaro public prosecutor’s office in southern Italy issued a European arrest warrant for Greco.
Thursday’s arrest comes two weeks after Italian police Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrestedalso with ties to ‘ndrangetha, who spent decades on the run as Italy’s most wanted man.
Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said in a statement: “Fugitives cannot escape justice forever, even if they try to escape to a quiet life abroad. Dedicated police officers around the world will always ensure justice.” I will make it happen,” he said.
“The arrest of Edgardo Greco has once again demonstrated the competence and commitment of the police to bring one of Italy’s worst criminals to justice and to take this opportunity to work in partnership with the French authorities.
The operation was part of Interpol’s I-CAN project, an Italian-funded initiative launched in 2020 that targeted the ‘ndrangetha criminal group’. Interpol says it has helped arrest dozens of fugitives around the world.
ndrangetha has long been a major concern of the Italian authorities. Considered Italy’s most dangerous and powerful criminal group, it has strong ties to the South American cocaine trade and global connections to Europe.
About 350 alleged members of n’drangetha appear in court in Calabria in Southern Italy in another class trial in 2021.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com