Love for football ended with the arrest of a fugitive mafia on a Greek island

Vincenzo La Porta was captured in Corfu after Italian police spotted him at Napoli's league triumph. Photo: Caribineri Napoli

A fugitive mafioso's «passion» for his Italian football team led to his arrest in Greece after 11 years on the run from the authorities.

60-year-old Vincenzo La Porta, «believed , has close ties» to the Camorra organized crime organization in the southern Italian city of Naples.

He was arrested Friday in Corfu after being photographed celebrating Napoli's triumph in the Italian league — the first in more than three decades in a restaurant on a Greek island earlier this year.

La Porta, who was on Italy's list of the 100 most dangerous fugitives, was seen wearing a baseball cap and waving his team's blue and white scarf in a photo taken in May.

«He was betrayed by his passion for football and the Napoli team ”, the Italian Carabinieri police said in a statement. «La Porta could not help but celebrate the victory in the championship.»

Finding La Porta, the Italian police went to Corfu to track down the fugitive, who had been on the run for more than a decade with the assistance of the Greek authorities.

< p>According to the carabinieri, they began to closely monitor him, including his social networks and financial transactions, and waited for him to «make a gaffe.»

Greek prison

Finally, last week, officers decided to detain him while he was riding a moped, blocking it on a street in Corfu. He is currently in prison in Greece.

La Porta has already been convicted in absentia in Italy for criminal association, tax evasion and fraud. If extradited, he faces a prison sentence of 14 years and 4 months.

“We will say that he does not want to be extradited,” La Porta lawyer Athanassios Giannakouris told The Associated Press.

“He was convicted of tax offenses long ago. He started a new family in Greece… He has a nine year old boy and works as a cook to survive. He suffers from heart disease. If he is extradited, he and his family will be ruined,” added Giannakouris.

La Porta is accused of being a member of the powerful Camorra Contini clan, which is part of a criminal cartel called the Secondigliano Alliance. , named after the area in Naples from which they operate.

Although considered less powerful than the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta and the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Camorra has been associated with a number of criminal activities in recent times. decades in the Naples area and beyond, including many murders, drug and arms trafficking, fraud, tax evasion and corruption.