Camorra drug trafficker Raffaele
Imperiale has handed over to the Italian authorities an island
he owns in an arcipelago off the coast of Dubai, judicial
sources said on Monday.
The announcement came during the trial in Naples involving some
20 defendants, including the notorious international drug
trafficker turned state witness who was arrested in the United
Arab Emirate city in August 2021 after five years on the run and
extradited to Italy the following March.
Imperiale, 49, had been on the run since 2016 and was living
high on the hog in Dubai and spending €400,000 a month to
maintain his lavish lifestyle.
Co-defendants in the accelerated trial procedure before a
preliminary hearing judge include business partner Bruno
Carbone, accountant Corrado Genovese, logistician Daniele Ursini
and a number of collaborators and employees, are also charged.
Imperiale, who begun his criminal career from a coffeeshop in
Amsterdam, is believed to have been at the head of an alleged
super drug cartel along with former Dutch most wanted criminal
Ridouan Taghi, Irish reputed gang boss Daniel Kinahan and
Bosnian drug trafficker Edin Gačanin.
The group was observed having meetings in the Burj Al Arab hotel
in Dubai, the base of the alleged cartel in 2017.
The Italian authorities regard this as one of the world's fifty
largest drug cartels, with a virtual monopoly on Peruvian
cocaine.
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