LONDON: An Italian mafia boss has been arrested in London after nearly two decades on the run, police said yesterday.
London’s Metropolitan Police said Domenico Rancadore, 64, was detained on Wednesday on a European arrest warrant.
Considered an important member of the Sicilian mafia group Cosa Nostra, Rancadore has been wanted by Italian police for 19 years and is on Rome’s list of most dangerous criminals.
Shocked neighbours in the west London suburb of Uxbridge, where Rancadore was living with his British wife and running a travel agency, described him as “one of the best neighbours you could have”.
He has an outstanding prison sentence of seven years in Italy for mafia-related activities, according to the arrest warrant. “He was taken into police custody and is scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today (8 August),” police said.
Rancadore, who went by the nickname “u profissuri” (the teacher) in the mafia, had been living a “comfortable” life in London before his arrest, Italy’s interior ministry said in a statement.
AFP
