Passion for this year’s soccer champions from Naples has led Italian police to capture a longtime organized crime fugitive who was living on a Greek island
ROME — Hometown passion for this year’s soccer champions from Naples has betrayed the hideout of a longtime crime fugitive from Italy, who was captured while riding a motor scooter on a Greek island, Italian police said Saturday.
Naples-based Carabinieri paramilitary police said the man, who was on Italy’s list of 100 most dangerous fugitives, was spotted in a photo of fans in a restaurant in Corfu, who were celebrating after the Napoli soccer squad clinched Italy’s top league championship a few weeks ago.
Police then headed to Corfu to tail the fugitive, identified by them as 60-year-old Vincenzo La Porta, who had been on the lam for 11 years.
They didn’t specify when his recent arrest was carried out, but said officers blocked him going down a Corfu street on a motor scooter. Greek police later said La Porta was arrested on Friday.
La Porta, considered close to a crime clan of the Naples-based Camorra syndicate, has been convicted in absentia of criminal association, tax evasion and fraud, the police said.
According to the owner of a different restaurant on the island, La Porta had been working there as an assistant chef for the last month or so.
Police in Corfu said he appeared before a prosecutor on Saturday and was ordered held in jail until a panel of appeals court judges rules on the extradition request.
Italy wants him extradited so he can serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months. It wasn’t immediately clear whether La Porta had a lawyer.
Police said they had been following La Porta’s online activity, including financial movements, and waited for him to make a false move that could tip them off to his whereabouts.
“Betraying him was his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team,” police said in a statement. ”With the championship victory, La Porta couldn’t resist celebrating.”
Investigators spotted him in a photo of celebrants of the restaurant, where he was holding in his hands a scarf in the sky-blue colors of his hometown team.
