A convicted killer, believed to be a member of one of Italy’s most powerful mafia organizations, has been spotted working as a pizza chef and arrested after nearly 17 years of manhunt.

Edgardo Greco, 63, is suspected of involvement with the infamous ‘Ndrangheta, a mafia organization in Calabria, southern Italy. Interpol said he was arrested on Thursday in the French city of Saint-Étienne, where French prosecutors say he once ran an Italian restaurant under an alias.

Greco, who has been described as a “dangerous fugitive”, is wanted in Italy to serve a life sentence for the murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, Interpol said on Thursday.

There, he was also charged with the attempted murder of Emiliano Moschiaro “as part of the mafia war between the Pino Sena and Perna Prano gangs that marked the beginning of the 1990s.”

The Bartolomeo brothers were beaten to death with iron bars in a fish warehouse in January 1991, Italian police said. Their bodies have never been found and it is believed that they were dissolved in acid. Rival gangs ordered their assassination because, according to gang leaders, the brothers were trying to expand their business by interfering with other families’ businesses.

In June 2021 in Saint-Etienne, Greco became the owner of the Italian restaurant Caffe Rossini Ristorante, which he ran until November 2021, according to French prosecutors. According to documents seen by AFP, he used the name Paolo Dimitrio and also worked at other Italian restaurants in the city.

The Caffe Rossini Ristorante Facebook account, which appears to have closed, revealed that the local press was covering its opening in 2021. “Paolo Dimitrio opens the restaurant of his dreams,” read the headline of an article in the local newspaper Le Progres. According to Italian media reports, Greco also worked nights at a pizzeria under his assumed name.

After his arrest early Thursday morning, he appeared before an investigator in Lyon, who formally served him with an arrest warrant in Italy, prosecutors said. Then he was taken into custody.

Greco’s arrest was helped by the Interpol Cooperation Against the ‘Ndrangheta project, which promotes police cooperation among its 195 member states.

Back in Italy, Greco managed to avoid prison after producing fake documents showing a false illness, the treatment of which was supposed to mean that he could not be detained.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piandendozzi said the arrests showed his country’s commitment to “fighting all forms of organized crime and tracking down dangerous fugitives.”

The murder of the Bartolomeo brothers was a turning point for the ‘Ndrangheta. Many bosses of the Calabrian mafia became informants and helped the authorities arrest dozens of their fellow citizens. “The ‘Ndrangheta factions are characterized by deep blood ties, a trait that once made the organization virtually impenetrable. But now many of these brothers, nephews and children of the chiefs have decided to come forward as witnesses against their relatives.”

According to Interpol, the ‘Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s most extensive and powerful mafia group, operating around the world and closely linked to the cocaine trade in South America.

Greco’s arrest comes a week after Italian police said they had dismantled the ‘Ndrangheta ring, which dominated a large area of ​​southern Calabria, and confiscated assets worth more than 250 million euros. Police and prosecutors said the 56 people, many of whom are already in prison, are under investigation for a range of crimes, including conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping, bribery and mafia-related gun possession.

Last month, Italian police arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the most notorious bosses of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra mafia, who has been missing for 30 years. A 60-year-old man was arrested after visiting a clinic in the Sicilian capital Palermo, where he was treated.

Source: Guardian, AFP, Associated Press.