Skip to main content

Captured Pasqualle Condello, 57, one of Italy's most wanted bosses of the southern 'Ndrangheta Mafia


Italian police on Monday arrested Pasqualle Condello, 57, one of Italy's most wanted bosses of the southern 'Ndrangheta Mafia, who has been on the run since the 1980s, the ANSA news agency reported.Condello had been sentenced to life in prison for a 1989 murder and has been considered since that time as the most important organised crime boss in Calabria. He was arrested at a house in the region's capital, Reggio di Calabria.Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato called it "a great day for Calabria and the fight against organised crime in Italy."Police arrested Pasquale Condello, 58; his nephew, Giandomenico Condello, 28; and son-in-law Giovanni Barilla, 30; and another unnamed person in a raid Monday evening.
More than 100 Italian police officials descended on an apartment in the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, finally arresting Condello, the reputed head of 'Ndrangheta, the Italian news agency, ANSA, reported Tuesday.Police officials said Condello was "cool and detached" during his arrest and said "I have nothing to do with your investigations, with gang wars nor with the charges for which you have issued nine arrest warrants against me."Officials said they believe Condello ran an extensive drug trafficking, extortion and racketeering ring that extended through much of Italy, racking up four life sentences in abstentia along the way, ANSA said.
A 2006 report from Italy's national crime agency said the 'Ndrangheta organization ran a cocaine operation in Europe that generated more than $50 billion per year.
Officials say the 'Ndrangheta organization is the most powerful mob organization in Italy, rivaling the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and Camorra in Naples.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rashawn and Deon Beneby Someone mowed down the brothers, some 15 yards apart, on a grassy strip

''They may have been into drugs but they didn't do anything to harm anybody,'' said their aunt, Cheryl Watkins. ``It was cold-blooded murder to lay them out like that.''Miami-Dade County's 80th and 81st homicides of 2008: Rashawn and Deon Beneby, brothers and suspects in a string of violent robberies, shot dead Thursday afternoon next to the Liberty City middle school they once attended. ''It's cold-blooded, outright killing out there -- and we're not even in the summer yet,'' said the Rev. Richard Dunn, a community activist who lives three blocks away. Witnesses said a group of men were gathered outside an apartment at the Annie Coleman Gardens housing project when the shooting started.Someone mowed down the brothers, some 15 yards apart, on a grassy strip next to the chain-link fence that separates the community from the baseball field at Charles R. Drew Middle School, 1801 NW 60th St. Rashawn was executed -- shot in the head an...

Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound,Ronald B. Campbell,Andrea G. Reeder,Dylan C. Grose,William C. Casteel.arrested

Four people were arrested on suspected drug charges, including the group's leader.Methamphetamine was found at the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound at West 19th Avenue and South Gum Street. Benton County Undersheriff Paul Hart said they needed so many officers as a "precautionary" step because the Gypsy Jokers are known to be connected to drugs and other criminal activities."It is an outlaw motorcycle gang with convicted felons who reside there," Hart said. "We gear up to meet that threat."Some stolen property and a couple of weapons also were seized, he said. The Violent Crimes Task Force, made up of federal agents and local police detectives, raided the club house and two homes at 5 a.m.The Benton County Regional SWAT team and the Yakima SWAT team were used to help search all the buildings."Because of the large site ... it makes it difficult to secure and make sure everybody is safe," Hart said. "The Violent Crimes Task Force ... ...

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expressi

Timothy “Fuzzy” Timms, a 45-year-old member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle club, stood up Monday for his First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Timms, a resident of the San Diego community of South Park, refused to take off a black leather vest with the motorcycle club's “death's head” insignia when he reported for jury duty. He's a big burly man, 5 feet 8 inches, 250 pounds, with a full beard and auburn-colored, shoulder-length hair. At 7:45 a.m., Timms' stance got him booted from the San Diego Superior Court's Hall of Justice by sheriff's deputies, along with another Hells Angel who also refused to remove his insignia vest. Nine hours later, representatives of both the Superior Court and the sheriff's department apologized to Timms and club member Mick Rush for “misunderstanding” an order issued April 24 by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser. Rush also had been reporting for jury duty. “It all boils down to a misunderstanding of Judge Fraser...