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Italy nabs fugitive mobster on most dangerous list
ROME, Nov 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Italian police on Tuesday captured a mafia
boss who had been on the country’s list of most dangerous fugitives, after
discovering his luxury hide-out in the Naples hinterland.
Antonio Orlando, a suspected major player in the ruthless Camorra
organised crime group, was clapped in cuffs after 15 years on the run, during
which he had continued to issue orders to the clan, police said.
“The good times are over” for the 60-year old mobster, Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini said as the news of the arrest broke.
Agents discovered the suspect in an apartment in Mugnano, which had been
kitted out to allow the housebound Orlando to keep fit, with a running
treadmill, sauna and sun shower tanning machine.
It even boasted a secret hideaway under the seat of the sauna, police
said.
Orlando, who had been preparing to move to another hideout, was in the
process of destroying fake identity documents and “raised his hands in a sign
of surrender” when the police bust in, regional commander Ubaldo del Monaco
told journalists.
A sweep of the apartment uncovered 6,000 euros ($6,794) in cash as well as
some of the messages received from his lieutenants on the outside during his
time in hiding.
He had been wanted for suspected ties to organised crime.
The clan allegedly specialises in trafficking drugs from Morocco and
Spain, as well as money laundering, but has a history in extortion and murder
as well.
– Costa Nostra –
Camorra bosses refer to Spain’s Mediterranean coast as “Costa Nostra”, or
“Our Coast”, alluding to the Sicilian mafia “Cosa Nostra”, according to
Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, a specialist on the Naples criminal
underworld.
Local media reported the Orlando family has strong ties by marriage with
the Nuvoletta clan — the only Camorra group with links to the Sicilian Mafia
in Corleone, which became synonymous with the Mafia through Francis Ford
Coppola’s popular “Godfather” films. Police were helped by a hitman who
turned informant and detailed Orlando’s rise to power and the forging of an
alliance in the 1990s between the Orlando clan and the Polverino family.
The Polverinos had been allied with the Nuvolettas, but the families
turned on each other when one boss slapped another, according to Italian
media reports.
The Orlandos were forced to choose sides, and opted for the up-and-coming
Polverinos, the media said. But by 2012, the Nuvolettas had been brought back
into the fold. The reports said Antonio Orlando would allegedly lead an
alliance of all three families.
BSS/AFP/RY/1952 hrs