The arrest of an Italian drug trafficker who was on Europol’s most wanted list is shrouded in mystery amid reports that he was captured and extradited from Syria.
Bruno Carbone, who had been on the run since 2003, was the right-hand man of Raffaele Imperiale, a drug broker for the Naples’ Camorra mafia who was arrested in Dubai in August 2021.
Carbone, 45, was arrested at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Tuesday in relation to a 20-year jail term handed down by prosecutors in Catania, Sicily, for crimes related to international drug trafficking, according to a statement from Naples’ police.
The statement provided no details on where Carbone had been tracked down, but the Italian press reported he had been captured in Dubai, and Mohammed Sankari, an official in a north-western Syrian area held by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), claimed Carbone was caught “while passing through the ‘liberated’ areas in March with the aim of reaching the regions under the control of the regime” of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Sankari made the claims on the Telegram channel, adding that Carbone had been “handed over to his country according to the rules in force”.
According to the Italian media, Carbone spent much of his time as a fugitive living in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.
Citing Dhia’ al-Umar, a spokesperson for HTS’s security service, SITE – an intelligence group that monitors jihadist websites – said Carbone moved to Europe and Turkey before relocating to regime-held areas of Syria as he considered them to be “havens from the law”. Carbone pretended to be a Mexican who was on the run for selling fake Rolex watches, according to SITE.
In December 2020, the UAE announced Carbone’s arrest, only to discover they had the wrong man. Domenico Alfano, a businessman from Naples, was arrested upon arriving in Dubai with his wife and children and spent 32 days in prison before being released.
A spokesperson for Naples police said no further details on the background of Carbone’s arrest were being provided.
In a further twist, the Italian justice minister, Carlo Nordio, issued a statement on Tuesday night thanking his UAE counterpart, Abdullah Al Nuaimi, for the fugitive’s capture. “This latest arrest testifies to a consolidation of judicial cooperation between Italy and the United Arab Emirates,” said Nordio.
The Italian newspaper, Il Foglio, suggested the UAE might have been the mediator of Carbone’s extradition to Italy from Syria.
Meanwhile, warrants for the arrest of 28 others connected to Imperiale’s Camorra clan, considered one of the most powerful drug-trafficking groups in the world, were issued in Naples on Wednesday.
According to Europol, Carbone was the key contact for the procurement of large quantities of cocaine, mainly from Spain. The gang also imported drugs from the Netherlands and Colombia, and a wiretapped conversation between Imperiale and Carbone revealed the pair had discussed “breaking through” in Australia.
Imperiale was known to be passionate about art – in 2016 two Van Gogh paintings that had been stolen in Amsterdam were found in his hideout in Castellammare di Stabia, near Pompeii.
