The fugitive Vittorio Raso when he was arrested on October 10, 2020 in Barcelona, at the time he was transferred to police facilities.
The National Court has given the green light for the extradition of the alleged capo of the Italian mafia of the 'Ndrangheta Vittorio Raso to the Italian authorities.
The National Police plans to hand over the detainee this Thursday morning at the El Prat airport to the Italian police, according to police sources.
The location and arrest of Raso in Spain has been controversial.
Wanted in his country for extortion and drug trafficking as head of the Calabrian mafia, the Police arrested him for the first time in October 2020 in Barcelona, but the National Court ordered his provisional release by mistake.
On the run for almost two years, the local police in Castelldefels arrested him again last June.
Since then he has remained in pretrial detention pending the court's decision.
As is usually done in this type of extradition, once the National Police agents hand him over to his Italian colleagues at El Prat airport, Raso will travel on a commercial plane to his country of origin, guarded by police officers.
Italy had been looking for him since at least 2018, when he was initially located in Spain, in the Malaga area.
Protected by the Calabrian mafia, the agents were unable to find him until October 10, 2020. He had moved to Barcelona, where he lived in a luxury apartment on Diagonal Avenue, with false documentation.
His release by mistake by the National Court caused discomfort in the National Police.
The court argued that Italy's initial arrest request only stated that he was wanted for extortion, so it decided to release him provisionally, pending a decision on whether to hand him over to his country.
Two hours later, with Raso already out of the cells, the magistrate received an extension linking him to drug trafficking as head of the 'Ndrangheta.
The Police then maintained that from the first moment his arrest was accompanied by a statement specifying that he was sentenced to 15 and 20 years for the crime of extortion, and another 20 for drug trafficking as a member of the 'Ndrangheta.
The local police of Castelldefels ended his escape on June 22.
The agents stopped him in a routine control and, upon checking the documentation, they suspected that it was false and decided to take his fingerprints, which triggered the various arrest warrants against him.
Without putting up any resistance, Raso was arrested, transferred to the Mossos police station and finally handed over to the National High Court.
The 'Ndrangheta is the most powerful mafia in Italy, with the capacity to move some 43,000 million euros a year, according to data from the Catanzaro Prosecutor's Office (southern Italy).
It is the organization with the most
subsidiaries
around the world.
The money that Raso allegedly collected was destined to feed the criminal organization again.
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