Colombian police say they have caught the alleged boss of Italy's Calabrian mafia, who they described as Europe's most wanted drugs trafficker.

Roberto Pannunzi was detained in a shopping centre in the capital, Bogota, authorities said.

He had been on the run since 2010, when he fled from a clinic in Rome, where he was receiving treatment as a prisoner.

Italian prosecutors accuse Pannunzi of establishing the transatlantic cocaine trade between Italy and Colombia.

As alleged head of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, he is suspected of helping to import up to two tonnes of cocaine into Europe per month.

The Italian was detained on Friday with the help of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Colombian defence ministry said in a statement.

"Pannunzi, known as the Pablo Escobar of Italy, was the most wanted man in the country," the defence ministry said in a twitter post.

"When he was captured, Pannunzi identified himself with a fake Venezuelan identification card bearing the name Silvano Martino," the ministry said.

Roberto Pannunzi was first detained in Colombia in 1994 and extradited to Italy but was released when his detention order expired.

He was re-arrested in 2004 and later convicted. But he staged an dramatic escape from a private hospital in Rome in 2010, where he was being treated for heart disease.

Italian authorities have described the 'Ndrangheta as the country's most dangerous and wealthiest crime syndicate, overtaking the Sicilian Mafia and becoming one of the world's biggest criminal organisations.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23209170

He was also doing business with the Sicilians big time.

Do Sicilians & Calabrians trust each other? I know there was alliance between certain families,i am interested in their relation nowadays?

They do. Absolutely. They're "cousins" and when it comes to business they work together.

But that being said...at the end of the day, the only person a Sicilian trusts is himself.

Has it actually come to the point where the calabrians are considered more powerful than the sciclians? I know the calabrans are really active in the european cocaine trade and have groups operating in other european countries, but how involved are the scilians in the global drug trade nowadays? And do they have a lot of reach outside of italy?

Sicilians (make note of spelling) have a lot of reach outside of Italy as always.
What you guys always fail to realize is this: in Italy they are not in competition with one another. Mafia is the mafia. They all have their regions but will work with one another for business. They're not enemies, which is what you guys always make them out to be. They're not in competition with one another.

Regards size/wealth etc my understanding was the Camorra had overtaken the Sicilians several years ago and are the no.1 OC force in Italy.

True. But if you're in Italy/Sicily, mafia is mafia, that's all I'm saying. It's regional but it's all mafia.

so who is it who has more power Camorra or Ndrangheta

It seems like whenever a top guy gets arrested they try to make them out to be like the boss of bosses, but does a position like that actually exist with the calabrians? I know the sicilians(spelling noted) have had a commision for the past like 20 or 30 years and there is a boss from every region that represnts the other clans in that region, do the calabrians have something similar to that?

I have to agree with Neil on this. It seems every time I read of a recent pinch if it's the Calabrians they label the guy a top boss. But could they be right, and just be talking about the guys position locally?

I remember reading in the Boston Herald a few maybe 5 years back and the Carabinieri were closing in a Ndrangheta fugitive who at the time was in a hospital under an assumed name being treated for some type of illness I forget what. But the cops came in dressed as doctors carrying flowers supposedly sent from friends, all part of theyr cover before they cuffed him and read him his Italian wrights. He was only 27 years old and considered a boss in the Ndrangheta by the authorities

It is not unusual in italy,to be a boss in his twenties.

Roberto Pannunzi is not made member of 'Ndrangheta at all,so i don't know how they call him boss.

ndrangheta and also cosa nostra are more powerful than camorra

They do this because when you're labeled as a boss in Italy, the gov't can, and will, charge you with a lot more and throw you into 41-bis regime, which is isolation.

That being said, many true bosses in Italy/Sicily are in their 30's. When you start killing at 16 years old, you can be boss in your 20's and 30's over there, easily. The other reason you hear the word boss thrown around so much is there are so many. Boss of a family, boss of a town, boss of a province.

Ndragheta keep a real tight ship. Families are blood relatives with inter-marriage between cousins quite often. I so happen to have a 3rd cousin of mine with the same last name of mine marrying her cousin who is being groomed to be the heir of an Ndrine (family), he is only 21 years old and very feared by the local townspeople. No one would dare rat. they don't see shit. The Ndrine's control a certain area, usually of just a few towns and their are hundreds of them throughout Calabria. You can not open a business of any sort without paying the local Ndrine. No public project's even begin without paying a Ndrine or Ndrine's...As a matter of fact it is so bad down there that no one wants to open any business because it is almost guaranteed that they will milk the owners then burn the joint down and take the the insurance payment form the owner to boot.

Sicilians are all inter married as well. They all marry their cousins. First cousins no less. This is what makes it so confusing when trying to put families together. Add to that, that they all name the cousins with the same first names after the grandfather. And add to that, that the women don't change their last name, you'll be confused for sure.

Paying pizzo isn't as bad as it once was. People are starting to stand up for themselves now. More and more are notifying police as well. Much more than before.

PS... insurance money? What insurance money? You'd die waiting.

Theres a video on You Tube if you just search Ndrangheta of Roberto Pannunzi being taken into custody, about 5 minutes long. no sound though kinda lame

I really wish their was more documentaries of Ndragheta. Footage is so rare.

agreed

http://www.france24.com/en/20130517-en-r...cking-france-24

Great video,10:00 is showing just how much people are scared.

Thanks Strax! Nice find

There is a documentary about the Ndrangheta called the Mafia's secret bunkers which was previously aired on the bbc here in the uk, if any of you with an interest in this subject have not seen it its well worth watching!

There is a separate thread about it on this site.

I saw that. That was really intersting. They literally operate in the underworld...lol