Raffale Imperiale, one of Italy's most wanted drug lords in his country and internationally, on the run for six years, has been arrested in Dubai, Italian police said Thursday (August 19th).
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Raffale Imperiale, a prominent figure in organized crime from Naples, southern Italy, and considered one of Italy's most dangerous fugitives, was arrested on August 4, in coordination with Interpol and Europol, a-t - we specified from the same source in a press release.
The 47-year-old man has been "
a long-time leading player in international drug trafficking and money laundering
" who, over the years, has created "
an impressive network of international traffickers, including cocaine
", he added. explained the police.
Italian justice is preparing an extradition request, she stressed.
A member of the Neapolitan mafia organization
Raffale Imperiale, part of the Amato-Pagana clan within the Camorra, the famous Neapolitan mafia organization, left Italy for Amsterdam in the 1990s to run a coffee shop, before joining forces with drug traffickers. Dutch, according to the daily La Repubblica.
After being addicted to the traffic in ecstasy tablets, he set his sights on the more lucrative traffic in cocaine, importing tonnes of the drug into the Netherlands for the European market with the help of South American traffickers. , while managing restaurants and investment companies.
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In 2016, Italian police discovered two Van Goghs that had been stolen 14 years earlier from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in a house near Naples owned by Raffale Imperiale.
These works, “
Life of the Sea in Scheveningen
” and “
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen
”, had been stolen in a daring hold-up.
Police said Thursday that a Raffale Imperiale sidekick, Vincenzo Aprea, a well-known Camorra godfather currently in prison, was able to buy the paintings on the black market with drug money.