One of Italy's most dangerous criminals caught by cops thanks to football photo
One of Italy's most dangerous criminals has been caught after 11 years on the run when he was snapped in Greece cheering on his football team.
Vincenzo La Porta, 60, is thought to have close ties to the Camorra organised crime gang in Naples and has been on the run for over a decade. A few weeks ago, he was pictured in Corfu celebrating on a balcony after his hometown team won a league title. Officers then managed to block him from going down a street on a moped after he left the property.
The Naples Carabinieri police said: "What betrayed him was his passion for football and for Napoli. With the championship victory, La Porta couldn't resist celebrating", police said. Officers said the photos were taken after Napoli won its first Italian championship in over three decades.
Vincenzo La Porta, who was on a list of Italy's 100 most dangerous fugitives, was captured a few weeks ago (Handout)La Porta has been convicted in his absence of criminal association, tax evasion and fraud. He appeared before a prosecutor on Saturday and was ordered to be held in prison until a panel of appeal court judges rules on an extradition request from Italy. If he is extradited to Italy, he is due to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months.
La Porta's lawyer Athanassios Giannakouris, told Associated Press: "He has started a new family in Greece... He has a nine-year-old boy and is working as a cook to get by. He suffers from heart ailments. If he's extradited, he and his family will be ruined."
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Seemingly a keen football fan, police spotted him back in May when Napoli won its first Serie A title after 33 years. He was seen outside a restaurant in Corfu wearing a baseball cap and waving a flag and they then tracked his every move.
His lawyer continued: "We will say he does not want to be extradited. He was sentenced long ago for tax offences."
The Contini clan he is accused of being a part of forms part of a criminal cartel called the "Alliance of Secondigliano", which is named after the neighbourhood in Naples from which they conduct their operations.
Although it is considered less powerful than Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta and Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Camorra has been linked with a range of criminal activity in recent decades in the Naples area and beyond, including a number of murders, drug and arms trafficking, fraud, tax evasion and corruption.
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