DUBAI: Dubai authorities on Wednesday confirmed they have arrested one of Italy’s most wanted international drug barons and his right-hand man, after years on the run.
Raffaele Imperiale, considered to be one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives, was a top operative from the Naples organised crime world.
In 2016 he was believed to have fled to the Gulf emirate.
A statement on Wednesday said Dubai police had arrested Imperiale.
“It also arrested Imperiale’s right-hand man Raffaele Mauriello, who is responsible for plotting and executing murders and assassinations using unlicensed firearms,” the statement added.
Dubai police said Imperiale had been living under a false identity in the of name Antonio Rocco, and had used multiple cars to conceal his movements.
“Imperiale chose to live in an isolated home with an overlooking spot to monitor those who approach him,” the statement cited Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, director of the Criminal Investigation Department, as saying.
“He intentionally had avoided registering a precise address to mislead authorities.” Police in Naples had said Imperiale was arrested on August 4 in Dubai in coordination with Interpol and Europol.Jallaf said police raided Imperiale’s house, and also seized large sums of cash, luxury watches and paintings.
Extradition proceedings were under way, he added.
Imperiale — part of the Amato-Pagana clan within Naples’ Camorra organised crime syndicate — left Italy for Amsterdam in the 1990s to manage a coffee shop, and began allying himself with Dutch traffickers, according to Italian daily La Repubblica.
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