A convicted mobster who was one of Italy’s most-wanted fugitives and reputedly one of the world’s most powerful drug brokers, has arrived in Rome, following his extradition from Brazil after 28 years on the lam.
Rocco Morabito held the No 2 position on the list of Italy’s most wanted and dangerous mobsters. He was convicted two decades ago in absentia of drug trafficking as part of the ’Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, which does billions of euros in cocaine business.
Italian police describe him as one of the world’s top drug brokers. Morabito, 55, must serve a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted in absentia by a court in Milan in 2001.
He was arrested in May 2021 by Brazilian police in a joint operation with Italian and US investigators. Morabito had earlier been arrested in Uruguay in 2017, but escaped from prison there two years later.
Italian police have been searching for him since 1994.
Calabria-based anti-mafia prosecutors say Morabito played a big role in cocaine trafficking between South America and Milan, a key distribution point for the drug to be sold elsewhere in Italy and across Europe.
In addition to drug trafficking, Morabito has been convicted in Italy of mafia association.
