(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 10 - Italy has requested the extradition from Brazil of Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia boss Rocco Morabito, recently arrested there after years on the run, Justice Minister Marta Cartabia told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission Thursday.
Drug trafficker Morabito, 54, had been on the run since 1994 when he was arrested in Uruguay in 2017, only to escape in 2019 and be re-arrested in Brazil last month.
He was Italy's second most wanted mafia fugitive after elusive Cosa Nostra superboss Matteo Messina Denaro.
Morabito was arrested along with another fugitive drug trafficker, Vincenzo Pasquino, on May 25.
The operation that led to their arrest involved the Carabinieri police, the FBI, the USA's DEA and the Brazilian police.
Morabito was arrested in a house at Joao Pessoa after being followed through the streets of the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraiba.
'Ndrangheta controls the European cocaine trade and is Italy's richest and most powerful mafia, having overtaken Cosa Nostra.
(ANSA).
Italy has asked Morabito extradition from Brazil-Cartabia
2nd most wanted mobster after Messina Denaro