'Ndrangheta: King of Cocaine escapes from prison

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat El Pais

The capo of the Italian mafia Rocco Morabito carried out this midnight a prison flight. He escaped

through the roof of the prison in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he was held since 2017, awaiting his extradition to Italy.

Morabito, who was number one in the 'Ndrangheta - the Calabrian mafia, escaped with three other international criminals from the Uruguayan prison.

"About midnight four people with administrative arrest who were housed in the Center of Income, Diagnosis and Derivation of the INR, escaped through the roof of the building through a gap", details a letter from the Communication Unit of the Ministry of the Interior (Unicom) of Uruguay. In their escape, they went through an adjoining house and stole money from their owner, the statement added.

 In addition to Morabito, Leonardo Abel Sinopoli Azcoaga escaped, arrested for a crime of forgery of documents and theft, at the request of the Brazilian justice, as well as, Matías Sebastián Acosta González, awaiting his extradition to Brazil, and Bruno Ezequiel Díaz , arrested for a crime of homicide at the request of the Argentine justice.

Mrs. Élida Ituarte experienced the shock of her life when she left her room at night and found three men in the corridor of her house. She knew that one of them was Morabito.

"We are from the consortium, we come to fix a pipe," said one of the men to explain his unexpected presence in the house. But Morabito, perhaps being honest with this woman of about 60 years, told him that he had to leave prison because his daughter was sick, according to local press reports.

They stole 3,000 pesos (about 88 dollars), at no time they hurt her. When she called the police to report what had happened, an agent explained: "You, when you are alone, always look inside the wardrobes ".

Wardrobes?

Did Morabito access the house through a closet? The first information only indicates that the four fugados would have left by the roof of the Central jail of Montevideo and then they acceded to the adjacent building and to the house of Élida Ituarte.

2017

Morabito had been arrested in Uruguay in early September 2017 after staying for 23 years at large. Who was one of the five most dangerous fugitives in Italy lived in the South American country for ten years with a Brazilian passport under the false identity of Francesco Antonio Capeletto Souza. The police stopped him in a hotel in Montevideo, but he lived in a luxurious mansion in Punta del Este. At his home were found twelve credit cards, thirteen mobile phones, checks and weapons.

The mafioso capo,  moved to northern Italy Italian at age 25, becoming the king of cocaine. From there he began to expand the narcotics distribution network with which the 'Ndrangheta has multiplied its size and danger in recent years becoming the main mafia in Italy.

In South America he was responsible for getting the drug from this continent to the north of Italy, according to the investigators.

In any case, tonight Uruguay plays against Chile for the Copa América, paralyzing the country. In addition, there has been announced a general strike of the PIT-CNT union that will disrupt the activity also from late afternoon. If Rocco Morabito took into account the national idiosyncrasies, he knows that starting at 8pm it will be easier for him to flee.

Based out of Calabria in Southern Italy, the ‘Ndrangheta mafia is thought to control about 80% of Europe’s cocaine trade.