One of the world’s biggest Italian drug lords captured in Colombia: EADaily

In Colombia, thanks to the cooperation of local police, Europol and the Italian carabinieri, the drug trafficker Gustavo Nocella, nicknamed “Hermes,” was detained. This was announced by the head of the National Police of Colombia, William Rene Salamanca Ramirez, on the X social network.

The work to keep the Italian was called “Minerva“; it lasted more than six months. Colombia’s police chief called the criminal one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world.

“The billiard table took advantage of the next “father” of the Italian mafia! We caught one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world, the Italian Gustavo Nocella, in Medellin.” Ramirez wrote.

He did not specify how the pool table helped in catching the suspect. However, the Associated Press explains that the man changed rented apartments every three months to hide from the police, but the department noticed that he put the same pool table in each home. The intelligence services tracked the board’s movement and determined Nocella’s new residence. It was held in a luxury apartment in El Poblado, one of the most prestigious areas in the Colombian city of Medellin.

According to security officials, he was the main link between Italian mafia clans and South American cartels, especially Colombian ones, and was responsible for the delivery of cocaine from Colombia to Amsterdam by ships and yachts, and then transport to Naples.

According to Ramirez, in recent months, Colombian and European law enforcement officials have managed to detain more than 40 drug dealers, RBC clarifies.

“The fight against the drug trade is not against peasants, but against drug lords. Everything else is an excuse to kiss the leaders,” – wrote the president of Colombia in X Gustavo Pedro.