BREAKING NEWS — This week police in Italy arrested a high-value Mafia fugitive from Calabria while he was on holiday with his family, in Sicily. Francesco Riitano jumped from an apartment balcony when police showed up at the vacation home he rented with his family in Giardini Naxos, a lovely tourist spot on the east coast of Sicily, near the famous Mount Etna volcano and the tourist hotspot of Taormina. He picked a great spot. But not a safe one. In June the place was crawling with cops who busted up a Sicilian mob clan’s grip on the tourist trade there. When he jumped out, he ran into the arms of police officers waiting outside.
Riitano, 39 years old, is known as “The General” and he has been a wanted fugitive for two years. Named as a major figure in the Gallace clan of the ‘Ndrangheta, he has been on the run since a major police operation in May 2017 focused on the suburbs of Milan, in Italy’s north.
That probe was given a strange code name — in English: operation Area 51. Police said the clan was using Milan as a hub for international drug trafficking. They had a direct connection with a Colombian cartel, thanks to a clan member with a wife from Chile who had strong ties to South America. Their operation linked Colombia, Barcelona, the Netherlands and Milan. Investigators found large stacks of seized goods, well hidden in secret compartments specially built into cars and vans. The compartments were locked tight and invisible until a special switch or button was activated, allowing the panels to slide, revealing the treasure within.
In that probe, police wiretaps caught mobsters bragging about their special encrypted Blackberry phones, saying they cost three thousand euros and were brought from Canada.
Police filed 21 arrest warrants in operation Area 51. Everyone was arrested accept for one. It’s prime target: Francesco Riitano. And now that search is finally over.
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