'Ndrangheta drug boss extradited from Dominican Republic

(ANSA) - Rome, April 28 - A top drugs trafficker in Italy's richest and most dangerous mafia, 'Ndrangheta, was extradited from the Dominican Republic Wednesday two days after his arrest in the Caribbean island nation's capital Santo Domingo.
    A fugitive since 2011, Nicola Pignatelli, 43, was one of Italy's 100 most-wanted fugitives.
    He had been sentenced to serve 13 years and six months on drug offences before his disappearance.
    Police said Pignatelli had completely transformed his appearance and suspect that he was involved in opening new channels for trafficking drugs from central and South America into Europe via the huge 'Ndrangheta-infiltrated Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro.
    Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, once a poor relation of the Sicilian Mafia, has grown in heft and reach due to its dominance of the European cocaine trade, investigators have said.
    The 'Ndrangheta has usurped Cosa Nostra as Italy's richest and most powerful crime syndicate with international contacts and activities.
    It has become a highly sophisticated global network while controlling swathes of its home turf where police fear to tread, Italian officials say.
    As well as being the richest, the'Ndrangheta is also regarded as the most impenetrable of Italy's mafias, with its close-knit family-based organisation outdoing the Sicilian Mafia in its ability to defeat police efforts to turn members into State witnesses.