Italian police commandos arrested a fugitive mafia boss on Sunday, finding a Kalashnikov rifle and two kilos (four pounds) of heroin and cocaine in a house near the hilltop town of Corigliano Calabro where he was hiding, authorities said.
Video footage released by police showed several commandos breaking down the door and arresting Antonio Caia, a leading member of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate from the Calabria region in southern Italy.
The 42-year-old had already served 14 years in prison for mafia ties and drug trafficking. After he was released, he started a turf war with a rival clan for control of an area around the port of Gioia Tauro — a hub for the drugs trade.
“He is a leader of the ‘Ndrangheta in the Gioia Tauro region,” Lorenzo Falseri, a local commander of the Carabinieri police, told a press conference.
After his release from prison, Caia was badly injured in an assassination attempt but left hospital early wearing a bullet-proof vest and with a group of bodyguards for protection, Italian media reported.
“Caia is a very dangerous representative of the clans in the area of Seminara,” local anti-mafia prosecutor Michele Presipino told reporters.
“His arrest is significant in breaking the structure of those clans.”
Caia will have to serve out a new sentence of 12 years in prison for mafia ties and extortion.
Italian commandos arrest fugitive mafia boss
