The deportation of former Mafia boss Rosario Gambino from the United States to Italy has been delayed, sources told Adnkronos.
The 65-year-old Gambino,(photo) cousin of Carlo Gambino, boss of the Gambino crime family, has been sought by Italian authorities since 2001, when a request for extradition was originally denied by US judges.
Eleven attempts for his extradition were rejected by US authorities on the grounds that a law known as '41-bis' could be result in Gambino being tortured in Italy.
The '41-bis' article of the Italian penitentiary act gives power to the minister of justice to suspend prison regulations, and can include a ban on association with other prisoners, a ban on receiving parcels and visits by family members among others.
Since Gambino is not a US citizen, a US judge signed the deportation order on Tuesday for Gambino to return to his native Italy after completing a 22-year jail term for drug trafficking charges.
He has since been kept in an immigration detention centre.
Gambino built up a massive illicit drugs trade between American and fellow mobsters in Italy during the late 70s .
Reportedly, Gambino and his two brothers set up a pizzeria known as Father and Son which the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed was used as a front to launder money and deliver drugs.
Gambino is also believed to have had ties with Michele Sindona, a corrupt international banker with numerous ties to the Mafia who was used by the Mob to launder billions in drug money in late the 70s and early 80s.
Sindona, was poisoned in jail in 1986 while serving a life sentence for the murder of lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli.
It is alleged that in 2001, Roger Clinton, half-brother of the then president Bill Clinton had sought to free Rosario Gambino with a presidential pardon, after having allegedly received 50,000 dollars among other gifts by the Gambino family.
