Winnie Pooh phone betrays mobster
Fugitive arrested in Brussels after calls to wife
05 August, 18:51
(ANSA) - Naples, August 5 - A mobile phone registered to
Winnie the Pooh helped police track down a fugitive Italian
mobster in Brussels, it emerged on Thursday.
Coded telephone calls between Vittorio Pirozzi and his wife
eventually led Italian police and Interpol to the Belgian
capital, where the 58-year-old fugitive was arrested on
Wednesday night.
Pirozzi, a member of the Naples-based Camorra crime
syndicate, had been on the run since 2003 and was on Italy's 100
most wanted list.
Throughout his time in hiding, the boss remained in close
contact with his wife, arranging meetings using a complicated
code of numbers and letters, according to Naples flying squad
chief Vittorio Pisani.
An exercise book since discovered at the wife's home
contained the complex code the pair had developed, he added.
But while Pirozzi changed the SIM card in his cell phone
every two weeks, his wife always used a card registered to the
name of A. A. Milne's fictional bear, Winnie the Pooh.The unusual alias, which received calls on a fixed day at the same time each week, eventually tipped off investigators, who followed the wife to Brussels earlier this week.
Pirozzi himself was finally spotted late Wednesday afternoon, leaving the modest apartment in central Brussels where he was living, on a shopping trip with his wife. A large-scale operation, including a police helicopter, was mounted shortly after the pair's return to the apartment but Pisani said the mobster was not armed and did not resist arrest.
Pirozzi, who was a leading member of the Mariano clan which controls the central Chiaia district in Naples, is thought to have started his criminal career in 1973.
After a string of petty offences, he eventually came to police notice in 1985 over suspected links with the Camorra crime syndicate. In 2003, he was convicted in absentia of international drug trafficking and given a 15-year sentence, which he will serve once extradited back to Italy. According to Pisani, Pirozzi continued his involvement in trafficking during his time on the run, which he divided between the Belgian capital and the Spanish coastal resort of Malaga. "Malaga and Brussels, near the port of Rotterdam, are both international crossroads for the stockpiling and importing of drugs to Europe," explained Pisani.
News of the arrest was welcomed by the Italian government. "This arrest is another great state success against the Camorra and adds to a long list of previous arrests," said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, congratulating national police chief Antonio Manganelli for the operation. Justice Minister Angelino Alfano described the arrest as "the state's latest victory in the fight against organized crime", while House Speaker Gianfranco Fini voiced "great satisfaction" at the news, congratulating the police for their "determination and professionalism".
