One of the leaders of the feared Calabrian mafia ‘Ndrangheta He was arrested this Thursday, Italian police reported. Is about Pasquale Bonavota49, one of the four most wanted criminals in the countrysuspected of several murders and accused of being the head of a splinter group from the powerful which operates mainly in the southern region and in northern Piedmont and Liguria.
Bonavota was arrested by the Carabinieri, the militarized police, when he tried to enter the Genoa Cathedral with two brothers with false documentation.
According to police sources, the mafia boss lived in an apartment in Saint Theodore while his wife resides in the Sampierdarena district and works as a teacher in a school there.
His arrest was celebrated by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosiwho pointed it out as a “success” of anti-mafia investigations and a confirmation of the “forceful response of the State” against organized crime.
Likewise, the person in charge of the Interior portfolio linked this episode with the arrest, at the beginning of the year, of Matteo Messina DenaroSicilian mafia boss Cosa Nostra.
Bonavota had been a fugitive from Justice since 2018 when he fled after being accused of murder charges -committed in 2004 and 2014- and mafia association as promoter of the group that he integrates and that has become one of the most influential in all of Italywith ties abroad and a diverse portfolio of illicit activities.
So, for security reasons, the trial was held in a bunker built in an industrial estate in the Calabrian town of Lamezia Terme despite the fact that, finally, the authorities could not find its whereabouts.
However, the search by the authorities did not prevent him from continuing to commit crimes in these years. The mobster participated December 19, 2019 of the operation “Rinascita-Scott”, a heavy blow to organized crime, and he was the only one who managed to escape. In that episode more than 300 people linked to the ‘Ndrangheta were arrested in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Bulgaria.
On the other hand, the daily Il Corriere della Sera assured that the mafia boss was working on a more sophisticated division of the bank, known as Evolved ‘Ndranghetawhich is no longer only engaged in drug trafficking but is also involved in money laundering through investments in cryptocurrencies.
As a result of these operations, the police of Hungary has open investigations on 25 subjects.
Regarding this evolution of the group, in October 2022, the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Rome had warned about the “Evolution of the mafia in the capital” and noted in a report: “Boss Pasquale Bonavota, at the head of the clan that has operated since the early 2000s in the capital, has been able to rmake important changes over the years, extending their business to Rome, where their treasure has been seized”.
Today, the Ndrangheta has become the richest and most powerful mafia in Italy Although, its influence has spread throughout the European continent. With a presence in more than 40 countries, it controls the entry of cocaine into the region and uses companies and front men to invest its illegal profits in the formal economy.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
Keep reading:
They arrested the former partner of mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro
The unusual clue that led to the arrest of the mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, the last godfather of Cosa Nostra
The day they captured “Toto” Riina, the peasant who became the bloodiest mafia boss in Italy
Source-www.infobae.com