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‘World’s biggest cocaine importer’ arrested shopping in Colombia
Updated Sat Jul 6, 2013 11:03pm AEST
Map: Colombia
An Italian mafia capo alleged to be the biggest cocaine trafficker in the world will be deported to Italy after being arrested in a Colombian shopping mall, prosecutors said.
Roberto Pannunzi was detained in Bogota with a fake Venezuelan identity card in a joint operation by Colombian police together with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“He is the biggest cocaine importer in the world,” Nicola Gratteri, deputy chief prosecutor in Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, said.
“He is the only one who can organise purchases and sales of cocaine shipments of 3,000 kilos and up.
“Pannunzi is the only one who can sell both to the ‘Ndrangheta and to Cosa Nostra. He is definitely the most powerful drug broker in the world.”
The ‘Ndrangheta is based in Calabria and is a major player in international drug trafficking. The Sicilian mafia is known as Cosa Nostra.
Mr Gratteri said Pannunzi was being deported since “an extradition order would have taken several months”.
He is expected to land at Rome’s Fiumicino airport late on Saturday (local time).
Pannunzi has to serve out a 16 and a half year prison sentence in Italy.
He had escaped from a Rome clinic where he was being held under house arrest in 2010 – repeating an earlier escape in the same way in 1999.
He was previously been detained in Colombia in 1994, when he reportedly offered the arresting officers a million dollars in cash to walk away.
Pannunzi’s arrest could ‘change the history of drug trafficking’
The arrest of Pannunzi, known by his associates as “Baby”, is being hailed as a major victory.
“Bebe is not a mafioso, not a killer, Bebe is a broker,” said Roberto Saviano, an Italian investigative journalist who published a book on the global cocaine trade earlier this year.
“His arrest could change the history of drug trafficking in Italy and internationally.
“He was a sort of Copernicus of cocaine. He changed the way the business works, he understood the new dynamics of the cocaine market.
“He collected money from the various families, often rival families, and bought cocaine in Colombia. He could manage fleets of ships to bring it to Europe.”
In April, Colombia captured another suspected top mafioso, Domenico Trimboli, alleged to be a lynchpin between the Medellin drug cartel and the ‘Ndrangheta.
Mr Gratteri said that during Friday’s arrest, Pannunzi had told the police he was ill but he said he hoped the alleged trafficker would not be granted house arrest in a hospital in Italy again.
“I hope that he is not given house arrest a third time because he could attempt a third escape,” Mr Gratteri said.
“It’s exhausting having to go around the world to find him every time he escapes.”
