Convicted Mafia killer, caught in France working as chef, 16yrs after he escaped prison

A convicted Italian Mafia killer, Edgardo Greco, who escaped from prison custody in 2006, has been caught in France having worked as a pizza chef for at least three years.

Greco was captured on Thursday in Saint-Étienne, according to Italian authorities, making it the second high-profile mafia arrest in the last one month.

Two weeks ago, a top Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested after being on the run for 30 years when he was detained on a visit to a clinic in Sicily.

Both men were wanted for carrying out grisly murders in the 1990s, an official statement said.

“While Messina Denaro was the boss of bosses for Sicily’s notorious “Cosa Nostra”, Greco was part of the “Ndrangheta” organised crime mob who originated from the Calabria region in Italy’s deep south,” the official said.

According to Italian media, the “Ndrangheta” are now the most powerful mafia in Italy with their tentacles stretching across Europe and South America.

READ ALSO:Deadly Italian Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, arrested after 30 years on the run

Greco, 63, was wanted for the murder of two brothers during a mafia gang war between two gangs in the early 1990s.

The victims, Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, were beaten to death at a fishmonger’s in the small town of Cosenza in January 1991, the media said.

“Their bodies were never found and are believed to have been dissolved in acid,” it said.

“Greco was part of a rival gang and he was also accused of the attempted murder of another man later that year in the same town.

“When a trial judge issued an arrest warrant for him in 2006, Greco went on the run. But eight years later, he settled in the French city of Saint-Étienne, south-west of Lyon, eventually taking up the job of pizzaiolo in an Italian restaurant.

“Greco took on a new identity, calling himself Paolo Dimitrio. By now, he had been given a life sentence back in Italy and was the subject of a European arrest warrant.”

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