Morabito is considered to be the leader of the Ndrangheta mafia, which has its origins in southern Italy. He was arrested in the city of Joao Pessoa along with another Italian on Monday.
The arrest happened after joint police work with Italy, says Brazilian federal police.
Italy wants him extradited for drug trafficking, and he was one of the most wanted people in Italy when he was arrested at a motel in Uruguay in 2017.
Until then, he had lived with a false identity for 13 years in Punte del Este in Uruguay.
«Kokainkongen»
According to Brazilian police, Morabito has been involved in drug smuggling between Brazil and Europe since the 1990s.
He has been called the “cocaine king”, and is partly to blame for the introduction and sale of drugs in Italy.
Morabito lived in this luxurious villa in Uruguay for 13 years. He lived with a false identity, but in 2017 he was arrested.
Photo: MIGUEL ROJO / AFP
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Morabito has been on the run from Italian authorities since 1995. In 2015, he was sentenced without being present to 28 years in prison by an Italian court. The sentence was later increased to 30 years in prison.
Escaped from prison
After being arrested in Uruguay in 2017, he was imprisoned while awaiting extradition to Italy. But in June of 2019, he and three others managed to insert escape through a hole in the ceiling.
This led to a large-scale hunt for the prisoners, and the head of the prison had to resign.
Morabito escaped, but after almost two years on the run, he was arrested again. This time northeast of Brazil.
Now he will probably be in a Brazilian prison until he is extradited.
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