Edgardo Greco, an Italian fugitive linked to the ‘Ndrangheta has been arrested in France after 16 years on the run. He worked as a pizzaiolo in a restaurant.
Edgardo Greco, ‘Ndrangheta mafioso on the run for 16 years was arrested in France, in the city of Saint-Étienne announced the Italian authorities on February 2.
Mr Greco, 63, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo and accused of the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro in Cosenza, a city in the Calabrese region Edgardo Greco used to operate, during a war between the cosca Pino Sena and the cosca Perna Pranno gangs that marked the early 1990s.
The Bartolomeo brothers, who had killed a prison director, were aspiring for more autonomy in the organization. They were beaten to death by bars. Their bodies have never been found and were allegedly dissolved in acid.
Edgardo Greco was missing since 2006 after having escaped temporary police custody in Italy as part of a trial that recollected the bloody events between the two cosche in the early 1990s.
He was living in France since 2014 and worked as a pizzaiolo for at least three years in a pizzeria in Saint-Étienne, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, a city of 175,000 people in eastern-central France.
According to the Gazzetta del Sud, Mr Greco lived alone under a fake identity and had to work for a living. His wife and two children live in Austria. The owner of L’Agora was convinced he was French as Edgardo Greco was fluent in French according to the local newspaper.
“The capture of Edgardo Greco brings to justice one of the worst Italian criminals,” stated Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi. On January 16, 2023, Italian authorities arrested Matteo Messina Denaro in a clinic in Palermo, Sicily. Considered the latest boss of bosses of the mafia, he was on the run for 30 years.
Mr Greco was a significant member of the ‘Ndrangheta but was not part of the four fugitives of maximum danger listed by the Interior Ministry.
Public Prosecutor’s Office of Catanzaro led the investigation, and the arrest of Mr Greco was carried out by the Arma dei Carabinieri’s Operative Department-Investigative Nucleus in Cosenza.
French authorities supported the investigation with the National Brigade for the Search of Fugitives carrying out surveillance of the suspect’s location as part of the Interpol Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta (I‑CAN) Project, funded by the Italian Department of Public Security.
Originating in the Italian region of Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s most extensive and powerful mafia group, which operates on every continent and has strong ties to the trade in cocaine bound for Europe from South America.
