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CRIME

Italian killer with mafia links arrested in France after 16 years on the run

A convicted murderer linked to one of Italy's most powerful mafia organisations was arrested on Thursday in central France, Interpol said.

Italian killer with mafia links arrested in France after 16 years on the run
Police arrested Edgardo Greco in central France on Thursday after a manhunt lasting 16 years. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)

Edgardo Greco, 63, is suspected of belonging to the notorious ‘Ndrangheta, a powerful mafia organisation in Calabria, southern Italy.

He is wanted in Italy to serve a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, and accused of the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro “as part of a mafia war between the Pino Sena and Perna Pranno gangs that marked the early 1990s”, Interpol said.

The Bartolomeo brothers were beaten to death with iron bars in a fish warehouse, Italian police said.

Greco’s arrest in central France came with help for Italy and France from the “Cooperation against ‘Ndrangheta Project” (I-CAN) run by Interpol, which facilitates police cooperation between its 195 member states.

READ ALSO: Italian police seize €250 million and arrest 56 in latest mafia blitz

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, quoted in Interpol’s statement, said the arrests demonstrated his country’s commitment to “fighting all forms of organised crime and locating dangerous fugitives”.

The ‘Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s most extensive and powerful mafia group, Interpol said, operating worldwide and with strong ties to the trade in cocaine bound for Europe from South America

I-CAN’s job is help raise awareness of ‘Ndrangheta and their modus operandi, sharing police information to dismantle their networks and operations, the agency said.

The arrest of Greco, who worked in the evenings in a pizza restaurant under an assumed named according to Italian media, came a week after Italian police said it had dismantled a ‘Ndrangheta mafia ring dominating a large area of southern Calabria and seized assets exceeding 250 million euros.

Fifty-six people, many already in prison, were put under criminal investigation for a series of crimes including mafia-related conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping, bribery and possession of weapons, police and prosecutors said.

The arrest of Greco comes just over two weeks after Italian police arrested one of the most notorious bosses of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, Matteo Messina Denaro, who had been on the run for 30 years.

The 60-year-old was arrested after visiting a health clinic where he was being treated in the Sicilian capital Palermo

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POLITICS

President of Italy’s Liguria region resigns after arrest over corruption probe

The president of the northwestern Italian region of Liguria resigned on Friday nearly three months after his arrest as part of a sweeping corruption investigation involving Genoa port operations.

President of Italy's Liguria region resigns after arrest over corruption probe

Giovanni Toti, 55, has been under house arrest since May as part of an investigation that has also implicated nine others, including the former head of the Genoa Port Authority, one of the largest in the country.

Contacted by AFP, a regional civil servant confirmed media reports of Toti’s resignation, who had been suspended from his post since his arrest.

Toti, a former member of the European Parliament elected as Liguria’s president in 2015 and again in 2020, has said he is innocent of accusations of bribe-taking.

Prosecutors allege he accepted 74,100 euros in funds for his election campaign between December 2021 and March 2023 from two prominent local businessmen, Aldo Spinelli and his son Roberto, in return for various favours.

These allegedly included efforts to privatise a public beach and speeding up the 30-year lease renewal for a Genoa port terminal for a Spinelli family-controlled company, which was approved in December 2021.

READ ALSO: Italy’s Liguria regional president arrested in corruption probe

Toti is a former journalist who was close to late PM Silvio Berlusconi. He is no longer aligned with a party but was backed by a right-wing coalition in the last election.

In a resignation letter published on the RaiNews website, Toti did not mention the accusations against him but instead listed his accomplishments as president and thanked his supporters.

“After three months of house arrest and the subsequent suspension from the office that voters have entrusted to me twice, I have decided that the time has come to tender my irrevocable resignation,” Toti wrote, according to RaiNews.

“I leave a region in order.”

Toti had more than a year remaining in his tenure as regional president. Under Italian law, new elections will have to be called within three months.

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