A MAFIA boss described as a ‘dangerous fugitive’ by Italian authorities has been arrested by the Guardia Civil after fleeing to Spain with his family.
Massimiliano del Vecchio, 42, was branded as one of ‘Italy’s Most Wanted’- a high commander of a Naples-based Mafia gang involved with large-scale drug trafficking, extortion, and the illegal sales of arms and explosives.
He fled to Spain in 2023, and had a European Arrest Warrant issued against him last year.
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It’s the latest in a series of high-profile Italian mafia arrests executed this year in Spain.
Del Vecchio- with his wife and children- lived on a ‘quiet’ urbanisation in an undisclosed location on the Costa Blanca.
He led an apparently normal life under a false identity of an EU citizen.
He used high-quality fake documents for all of his daily business, from renting his home to opening bank accounts.
Guardia investigations uncovered that he made regular trips to Barcelona to conduct business he did not want to do close to home and to maintain discreet contacts with Italian colleagues.
That proved to be his undoing as officers monitored him in Catalunya before swooping on him before he was about to get into a car in Barcelona’s Gracia district after visiting a dentist to get an implant.
The Guardia said he was still under the influence of the anaesthetic when they arrested him.
Items on him were two false passports of different nationalities plus €100,000 in cash in various currencies that was in his backpack.
There were also multiple credit cards with fake identities, three phones plus 12 unactivated SIM cards, as well as luxury jewellery and watches worth tens of thousands of euros.
Another mistake by Del Vecchio was posting social media photos of himself which allowed Italian police cyber experts to track him down to Spain, who then contacted the Guardia Civil.
Italy`s extradition request will be processed by the National Court.
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