After 16 years on the run, a Calabrian mafioso was arrested in France, where he baked pizza

After 16 years on the run, Interpol has arrested Edgardo Greco in France, suspected of two murders and collaboration with the Calabrian mafia, The Guardian reports. All this time he was engaged in the restaurant business under an assumed name.

The 63-year–old Greco is considered a dangerously special criminal and is suspected of belonging to the infamous 'Ndrangheta - Calabrian mafia. In his homeland, he is wanted to serve a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo. In January 1991, the Bartolomeo brothers were beaten to death with iron rods at a fish warehouse in Calabria. Their bodies were never found: the police believe that they were dissolved in acid. At the same time, in the early 1990s, which were marked in Calabria by the war between the mafia clans of Pino Sena and Perna Pranno, Greco participated in the attempted murder of a member of the opposing group Emiliano Mosciaro.

Greco was arrested in the French city of Saint-Etienne, where, according to the French prosecutor's office, he was engaged in the restaurant business. So, from June to November 2021, Greco under the name Paolo Dimitrio was the owner of the Italian restaurant Caffe Rossini Ristorante. The local newspaper Le Progres dedicated a note to the opening of the institution, which said: "Paolo Dimitrio opens the restaurant of his dreams." Under the same assumed name, Greco worked in the evenings at a pizzeria.

The detention took place thanks to the project "Cooperation against the Ndrangheta" (I-Can), in which Interpol member States jointly participate in the capture of members of the Calabrian mafia. It is believed that the 'Ndrangheta was the most extensive and powerful mafia group in Italy, operated around the world and had strong ties with cocaine traffickers from South America who traded with Europe. Last week, the Italian police announced that they had liquidated the Ndrangheta and seized assets exceeding 250 million euros. Fifty-six people, many of whom are already in prison, have been prosecuted for crimes such as extortion, kidnapping, bribery and possession of weapons.