Italian mafia boss Rocco Morabito has escaped from prison in Uruguay
A mafia boss, who was once considered in the top five most dangerous Italian fugitives, has escaped from an Uruguay prison, the country’s interior ministry has confirmed.
Rocco Morabito, nicknamed the ‘Cocaine King of Milan’, had been the ‘most wanted’ fugitive member of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful organised crime group and one of the biggest importers of cocaine in Europe.
Morabito was arrested in 2017 in Uruguay after more than 20 years on the run.
Convicted in absentia for drug trafficking and organized crime activities in Italy, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The ‘Ndrangheta mafia comes from Calabria in southern Italy, and is thought to control as much as 80% of Europe’s cocaine trade.
According to the ministry” The drug kingpin and three other inmates managed to break out of the National Institute of Rehabilitation (INR) in Montevideo through a hole and out onto the rooftop of the building late on Sunday night (23.6.2019). The group robbed a nearby farmhouse before fleeing”.
He was discovered with a Brazilian passport in the name of Francisco Attilio Capelletto Souza, a soy trader and a resident of the coastal city of the Punta del Este, as well as 13 mobile phones, 12 credit cards and a gun.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said “It is disconcerting and serious that a criminal like Rocco Morabito, boss of the ‘Ndrangheta, managed to escape from a jail in Uruguay while he was waiting to be extradited to Italy.
“ I make two commitments. First: to shed light on evasion procedures, asking for immediate explanations from the Montevideo government. Second: we will continue to hunt down Morabito wherever he is, to throw him in jail as he deserves.
The three other men who escaped were also awaiting extradition to Brazil and Argentina.
Cops in the country have now launched an urgent, nationwide appeal for any information on the whereabouts of the former mob boss.
