On the same day that another wanted mafioso was apprehended in France, Italian police reported the capture of a man with ties to the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Bali, Indonesia.
After being on the run since 2016, 32-year-old Antonio Strangio was apprehended at Bali’s airport on February 2.
He had eluded capture by going to Australia, where he is a citizen and cannot be extradited.
But he was still being watched, and when he arrived in Bali, he was taken into custody.
Although his arrest wasn’t made public until Wednesday, it happened on the same day that convicted murderer Edgardo Greco was taken into custody in France.
Greco, 63, was another ‘Ndrangheta suspect who had eluded capture since 2006.
The central head of the Italian criminal police, Vittorio Rizzi, declared on Wednesday that “the ‘Ndrangheta has nowhere to hide, neither in Italy nor abroad.”
The Cooperation against ‘Ndrangheta (I-CAN) programme of Interpol, which involves 13 nations, served as the framework for the police operation.
According to Rizzi, 43 fugitives have been apprehended thus far as a result of the programme, which started in 2020 and will terminate later this year.
The ‘Ndrangheta is regarded as Italy’s most powerful mafia organisation.
It operates globally and has close ties to the trafficking in cocaine coming from South America to Europe.
It was still “largely unknown by police agencies throughout the world until three years ago, considered virtually as a legendary phenomenon,” according to Rizzi.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi praised the most recent arrest and praised international collaboration as “indispensable for battling crime which operates globally.”
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