The leader of the Italian mafia was arrested in France, and he escaped from prison and lived a frugal life! The mafia holds the lifeblood of the country's economy and is difficult to eradicate?

On February 2, French and Italian authorities announced that Marco Raduano, the leader of the Italian mafia Società foggiana, was arrested on February 1 in the French province of Haute-Corse, and his right-hand man Gianluigi Troiana was recently arrested in Otura, near the Granada region in southern Spain. The former successfully escaped from prison at the end of February 2023, while the latter disappeared while serving his sentence outside of prison in 2021.

The leader of the Italian mafia was arrested in France

According to the report of Agence France-Presse and Le Monde, Europe's most wanted criminal website introduced that Raduano is 40 years old this year and is a veritable "dangerous person". Europol said Raduano was both the "ringleader" of the mafia active in the Foggia region of Pouilles in southern Italy, as well as a "real mastermind," organizer and a cold-blooded killer.

According to the British media "The Times", Raduano once led a notorious violent criminal gang, which is notorious for often breaking the heads of victims with shotguns to prevent the victims' families from holding public funerals. Allegedly, his personal arsenal was guarded by anaconda.

Raduano was sentenced to 24 years on charges of organizing mafia groups, drug trafficking, illegal possession of weapons, and escaped from prison in 2023 while serving his sentence. His right-hand man, 30-year-old Troiana, disappeared in 2021 after serving nine years and two months outside of prison. The Italian gendarmerie added that in an ongoing case, Raduano and Troiana were accused of committing two murders in 2017.

The Italian side praised the cooperation between the police forces of European countries, which led to the successful arrest of the mafia leader, and thanked the French and Spanish law enforcement agencies in particular. It is understood that the arrest was carried out by the Italian gendarmerie with the cooperation of the French gendarmerie and the Spanish National Guard.

Italy's interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, celebrated on social media X that the two arrests had dealt a "new round of heavy blows" to the mafia, along with a photo of Raduano.

He successfully escaped from prison last year

According to Italian media outlet Rai Radio1, the photo was taken from Raduano's successful escape from the high-security prison of Nuoro in Sardinia at the end of February 2023. Before escaping, he was held in a second-floor cell, crawling from the outer wall to the ground using knotted sheets, and quickly escaped from the prison walls, before disappearing. The surveillance video garnered attention on social media.

During Raduano's two-hour escape, the prison authorities were unaware, with no patrols and no one viewing the surveillance footage.

Footage of the prison escape of Italian mafia leader Raduano. (Image source: X screenshot)

Giovanni Villa, head of the Sardinian branch of the Italian FNS-CISL trade union, said that Raduano was an exemplary "prisoner" during his sentence, having worked in a library on the upper floor, and he could see through the window when the guards were on patrol and determine the exact time of escape.

Villa stressed that "he seems to have been planning for a long time and is well prepared". In the months leading up to his escape, he exercised every day and managed to lose weight, probably in preparation for his escape, and there may have been people who helped him inside and outside the prison. He even took advantage of the change of patrol guards to take the prison key and open the door to escape.

Vera believes that Raduano's escape from Italy's high-security prison is related to a shortage of prison staff. According to media reports, after the prison budget was reduced, 50 prison staff were responsible for supervising about 180 prisoners, many of whom were members of Italy's notorious mafia and killers.

Raduano managed to disappear despite a vigorous search operation in Sardinia, Italy, with police barricades, checks on all vehicles leaving the area, and even hundreds of gendarmes arranged by the Italian government to assist in the search.

Raduano's escape coincided with a fireworks display in his hometown of Vieste, where the mayor said the celebration had nothing to do with Raduano's escape. But his flight has caused concern among the Italian public, fearing that the leader of the mafia organization will organize retaliation and violence.

"Calmly" arrested

Finally, a year later, Raduano was arrested again.

The source stressed that at first, Italian law enforcement agencies tracked Raduano's whereabouts by gathering information from young women who worked in Corsica and traveled with Raduano. Two days before the arrest, the Corsican gendarmerie received information that there were fugitives on the ground and carried out a "calm" arrest after the fugitive's identity was confirmed. At the moment, it is not known what happened to the young woman.

The source also said he lived a "rather simple life", with fake documents, driving a stolen car with false identity registration, and camping frequently, but it was not known how long he had lived in Corsica.

In addition, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Raduano was dining with a woman when he was arrested, and he was surprised by the arrival of the gendarmerie. AFP also said that the restaurant is located in the eastern Corsican town of Aléria, according to sources.

Jean Jacques Fagni, the attorney general of Italy's Bastia, said Raduano would be extradited back to Italy.

The Italian mafia holds the lifeblood of the Italian economy

Currently, the mafia "Foggia Society" is considered one of the most violent criminal organizations in Italy, but it has been underrated until now, and was once called the "fourth largest mafia organization" in Italy, the first three are: "Our Cause" (Sicily), "Ndrangheta" (Calabre) and "Camorra" (Naples).

According to a 2021 survey, the Italian mafia holds the lifeblood of the Italian economy, with industries directly related to the mafia generating 12% of the country's total GDP. In the case of the "Glorious Society", drug trafficking is an important means of accumulating money, and its drug market is not only in Europe, but also in South America, with an annual turnover of tens of billions of euros. In addition to drug trafficking, arms smuggling and extortion are also their "ways to make money". In order to legalize these illegal incomes, the "Glorious Society" has invested huge sums of money all over Italy, from high-end clubs to environmental causes.

Francesco De Raho, Italy's former national anti-mafia prosecutor, said eradicating the mafia was a "urgent" national priority.

However, analysts believe that the Italian mafia has a long history, and it will be very difficult to completely "eradicate the mafia" in a short period of time. A criminal investigation expert said that the economic and political background of the Italian mafia is complex, and the transnational nature of its organization and crimes also adds objective difficulty to the fight against the mafia, so it is difficult to eradicate the mafia in the short term.

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(Editor: Li Jingtong)