Italy's Second Most Wanted Mafia Boss Arrested After 20 Years in Hiding

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iStock/Thinkstock(ROME) — After 20 years on the lam, one of Italy’s top mob bosses has been arrested.

Italian authorities found Ernesto Fazzalari, a leading figure of the powerful mafia clan the ‘Ndrangheta, asleep with a female companion in a small apartment in Calabria.

Fazzalari, 46, was fleeing a life sentence for murder. Authorities said he remained a powerful clan leader of the ‘Ndrangheta, believed to control most of the cocaine trade in Europe, while in hiding.

He first fled in 1996, and in 1999 he was convicted in absentia of murder and other crimes.

Fazzalari was Italy’s second most wanted mob boss, but the search continues for Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the most wanted criminals in the world.

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