Italian Edgardo Greco, an alleged member of the powerful Calabrian mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, has been arrested after 16 years on the run in Saint-Etienne, in east-central France, Interpol announced Thursday.
Sentenced to life imprisonment, this 60-year-old was arrested by the French police thanks to information from the carabinieri [polícia militarizada italiana]shared by the two partner countries thanks to the I-Can project, Interpol’s cooperation against the ‘Ndrangheta.
The arrest took place on Thursday around 1:40 am (12:40 am in Lisbon) in a street in the French city, the France-Presse agency (AFP) reported.
Edgardo Greco, 63, was present before a judge at the public prosecutor’s office in Lyon and expressed his refusal to be handed over to Italian justice after being taken into custody, the attorney general’s office revealed.
“Great satisfaction with this important operation, also thanks to the important synergies developed within the framework of an international network of cooperation between police forces. The arrests of dangerous fugitives continue”, Preliminarily emphasized on the social network Twitter the Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, in response to this arrest.
The Italian minister also pledged to continue “strong state action against all forms of organized crime”.
Greco was sentenced to life in Italy for murder in 2006 and moved to France the same year, the attorney general said.
According to the same source, he became the owner and manager of Caffé Rossini Ristorante between June and November 2021.
According to testimonies and documents consulted by AFP, Greco called himself Paolo Dimitrio and worked in several Italian restaurants in Saint-Etienne.
According to the Italian carabinieri, Edgardo Greco was the target of a European arrest warrant in 2014 by the public prosecutor of Catanzaro (Calabria, southern Italy) after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for two murders committed in January 1991 and an attempted murder in July . 1991.
The fugitive, described by Interpol as “dangerous”, escaped while in police custody.
At the time, Greco was part of the Perna-Pranno clan, the most important in the town of Cosenza, where he lived.
“He is considered jointly responsible for the January 5, 1991 ambush that killed the brothers Stefano and Giuseppe B. who wanted more autonomy and consideration between the clans of Cosenza,” the Italian carabinieri said in a statement.
The victims were allegedly murdered “with iron bars in a fish warehouse (…) and their bodies disappeared and were never found again,” the same source stressed.
This arrest comes a week after a major police operation against the mafia that devastated Calabria.
About 300 law enforcement officers participated in this operation, which seized assets worth more than 250 million euros.
Hundreds of members of this organization are being tried in a ‘mega trial’.
On January 16, the head of ‘Cosa Nostra’, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested by Italian authorities, charged with inciting several murders and massacres that characterized Italy for decades.
Wanted since the 90s, Matteo Messina Denaro managed to stay hidden thanks to a network of contacts and help that allowed him to escape all these years.
Source: DN
