Italy arrests top mafia fugitive

Italian police forces arrested on Wednesday Antonio Iovine, a mafia boss who had been on the run for 16 years. He was one of Italian police’s most wanted people.

Antonio Iovine, one of the most important figures of the southern Italian Mafia known as Camorra, was arrested earlier this afternoon by the Italian police and transferred to a safe and secret location.

Even if his nickname - ‘O Ninno - could sounds silly, Antonio Iovive was considered the leader of the Camorra’s Casalesi clan. This arrest will seriously affect the mafia organization described in Roberto Saviano’s best seller book, ‘Gomorra’.

Iovine, 46-years-old, has already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Spartacus Trial for at least six murders.

“Today is a beautiful day for those who fights against mafia”, declared the Italian Minister of Interns Roberto Maroni. The Minister of Justice, Angelino Alfano, added: “I will immediately sign the request to put this dangerous mafia man in the regime of 41-bis. This news confirms once again that the team ‘State’ wins against mafia”.

In the list of the Italy’s most wanted criminals there are still Matteo Messina Denaro, number one of the Sicilian mafia ‘Cosa Nostra’; Michele Zagaria, from Iovine’s clan and the 'ndranghetisti (Calabrian mafia people) Sebastiano Pelle and Domenico Condello.

Article published by Digital Journal on November 17th 2010.