Italian mobster Rocco Morabito escapes from Uruguayan prison
Posted June 24, 2019 11:37 am.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguayan authorities say a top Italian organized crime boss has escaped from the prison where he was awaiting extradition to Italy.
Authorities said Monday that Rocco Morabito escaped with three others inmates through a prison roof.
Morabito has been convicted of drug trafficking. He was arrested in 2017 in Uruguay, where he had been living in a luxury seaside villa under an alias for about a decade. He had been on the run from Italy since 1994.
Prosecutors say Morabito played a large role in trafficking operations between South America and Milan — a distribution point where drugs are then sold elsewhere.
He has also been described as a key figure in the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta mob, one of the world’s biggest movers of cocaine.
The Associated Press
