Italian Edgardo Greco, an alleged member of Calabria’s powerful Ndrangheta mafia, was arrested Thursday in Saint-Etienne, in central-eastern France, after 16 years on the run, Interpol said, according to AFP.

The 60-year-old man, who was serving a life sentence, was arrested by French police thanks to information provided by the Italian Carabinieri, which was shared between the two partner countries through the I-Can (Interpol Cooperation against ‘Ndrangheta) project.

The arrest took place around 1:40 a.m. on a city street. Edgardo Greco, 63, was presented Thursday afternoon by a magistrate from the public prosecutor’s office in Lyon, who formally informed him of the arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities.

According to the Prosecutor General, he refused to be handed over to Italian justice and was placed in custody.

“It is a great pleasure to conduct this important operation and thanks to the important synergistic effect that develops within the international network of cooperation between police forces. Arrests of dangerous fugitives continue,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi commented on the detention on Twitter.

“The activity of the police does not stop, day after day quietly participates in continuous work in Italy and abroad to protect the safety of citizens,” he added. He promised that “resolute state action against all forms of organized crime” would continue “resolutely.”

Edgardo Greco, sentenced to life in prison in Italy in 2006 for the murders, moved to France that same year, according to prosecutors.

According to the same source, he became the owner and manager of Caffé Rossini Ristorante from June to November 2021.

He took the name Paolo Dimitrio and worked in several Italian restaurants in Saint-Etienne, according to testimony and documents seen by AFP.

According to the Italian Carabinieri, Edgardo Greco was the subject of a European arrest warrant in 2014 from the prosecutor’s office in Catanzaro (Calabria, southern Italy) after he was sentenced to life in prison for two murders committed in January 1991 and attempted murder for the murder in July 1991.

The fugitive, classified by Interpol as “dangerous”, escaped from police custody.

At that time, he was part of the Perna-Pranno clan, which was the most important in the city of Cosenza, where he lived.

“He is considered co-responsible for the ambush on January 5, 1991, which cost the lives of the brothers Stefano and Giuseppe B., who wanted more autonomy and attention around the Cosenza clan,” the Italian Carabinieri said in a statement. statement.

The victims were killed “with iron rods in a fish warehouse (…) and their bodies disappeared and were never found,” the same source said.