One of the most senior members of Italy's 'Ndrangheta
Mafia, Rocco Morabito, has escaped from a Uruguay prison where he was
awaiting extradition to Italy.
Rocco Morabito, 52, escaped from the INR prison in the capital Montevideo along with three other inmates, the Uruguayan Interior Minister said in a Monday statement. At around midnight, the four men escaped via the prison's rooftop. They then broke into a flat of a neighbouring building and stole money from the woman living there, the ministry said.
At the time of his arrest in Uruguay in September 2017, Morabito was described by then-Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti as "the number one fugitive" from the 'Ndrangheta. He had been on the run since 1994, and had been convicted in absentia for belonging to a Mafia organization, cocaine trafficking and other serious crimes, and should serve a 30-year-prison sentence.
That he managed to flee from prison "is disconcerting and serious," Italy's current Interior Minister and deputy premier Matteo Salvini said in a statement. He said he would "ask the government in Montevideo for immediate explanations," and pledged to hunt down Morabito "wherever he is, to dump him in prison, as he deserves." T
he 'Ndrangheta is one of the world's most powerful organized crime groups, and is the leading smuggler of cocaine into Europe. It originates from the southern Italian region of Calabria. According to the Uruguayan El Pais newspaper, Morabito had not yet been extradited to Italy because he had appealed against it before Uruguay's supreme court.
Rocco Morabito, 52, escaped from the INR prison in the capital Montevideo along with three other inmates, the Uruguayan Interior Minister said in a Monday statement. At around midnight, the four men escaped via the prison's rooftop. They then broke into a flat of a neighbouring building and stole money from the woman living there, the ministry said.
At the time of his arrest in Uruguay in September 2017, Morabito was described by then-Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti as "the number one fugitive" from the 'Ndrangheta. He had been on the run since 1994, and had been convicted in absentia for belonging to a Mafia organization, cocaine trafficking and other serious crimes, and should serve a 30-year-prison sentence.
That he managed to flee from prison "is disconcerting and serious," Italy's current Interior Minister and deputy premier Matteo Salvini said in a statement. He said he would "ask the government in Montevideo for immediate explanations," and pledged to hunt down Morabito "wherever he is, to dump him in prison, as he deserves." T
he 'Ndrangheta is one of the world's most powerful organized crime groups, and is the leading smuggler of cocaine into Europe. It originates from the southern Italian region of Calabria. According to the Uruguayan El Pais newspaper, Morabito had not yet been extradited to Italy because he had appealed against it before Uruguay's supreme court.
