'Cocaine king' Rocco Morabito caught in Uruguay after 23 years on run
After the arrest, 13 mobile phones, a 9mm handgun, 拢41,000 in cash and a Mercedes coupe were also confiscated by police.
Monday 4 September 2017 20:11, UK
Italy鈥檚 most wanted mob boss has been arrested in Uruguay after 23 years on the run.
Rocco Morabito, 51, who was known as the 'cocaine king of Milan', was arrested in a Montevideo hotel on Sunday.
He had been convicted of drug trafficking and mafia association in 1994, after doing a £6.2m drug deal to import almost a tonne of cocaine into Italy, but fled the country before he could be jailed.
He was found to be living under a fake name, using a false Brazilian passport, and living in a luxury villa with its own swimming pool in the seaside resort of Punta del Este.
A 9mm handgun, 13 mobile phones and £41,000 in cash were confiscated from his villa, as well as a luxury Mercedes coupe.
His wife, who had a Portuguese passport stating Angola as her birthplace, was also briefly detained.
The recent registration of one of his children at a Uruguayan school - under his real name rather than an alias - is being credited with leading police to the fugitive, who was previously suspected of escaping to Brazil.
Initially jailed in Uruguay for using false documents while Italy's request for extradition was processed, Morabito must now serve 30 years in Italian prison.
Authorities said Morabito played a big role in cocaine trafficking between South America and Milan.
The Italian interior ministry is still hunting for four of the country's most-wanted criminals, including Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.