ROME – Police say they arrested a fugitive crime boss who they found holed up in a secret room of his brother’s house in the southern Italian region of Calabria.
Officials of the Carabinieri paramilitary police force in Reggio Calabria say Salvatore Coluccio has been a fugitive since 2005.
They say Coluccio tried to elude capture on Sunday by slipping through a closet to the secret room in the house in the town of Marina Gioiosa Ionica.
Police say the house belongs to his brother Giuseppe Coluccio, who was arrested a year ago in Toronto and extradited to Italy.
Investigators allege the brothers are involved in international drug trafficking run by the ‘ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.
Giuseppe Coluccio fled Italy in 2005 and was convicted in absentia for drugs, weapons, and conspiracy charges. Italian authorities named him one of the country’s 30 most dangerous people.
