REGGIO CALABRIA, 08 FEB – A fugitive from the ‘Ndrangheta, Antonio Strangio, aged 32, was arrested at the Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali (Indonesia) by the local police. The man is believed to be linked to the homonymous ‘ndrina of San Luca known as “Janchi”. Affected by the Interpol “Red Notice” (the international arrest notice for wanted people all over the world), he is accused of drug production and trafficking with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method in the “Eclipse 2” operation directed by the Reggio Dda Calabria and conducted by the investigative department of the provincial command of the Carabinieri of Reggio. The investigation, a continuation of the “Eclipse operation”, had led in July 2015 to the arrest of 11 subjects belonging to gangs from the Vibonese and Reggio areas, linked to the Bellocco clan. Strangio had fled in 2016 by fleeing to Australia from where, having been a naturalized Australian citizen, he could not be extradited. The Reggio Carabinieri, supported by the I-CAN Unit (Interpol Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta) and by the Italian Security Expert in Canberra, continued to follow his trail without letting go and at the first misstep they captured him . With the collaboration of Interpol Indonesia, he was arrested in Bali, as soon as he left Australia, on February 2 at 9 pm local time (3 pm in Italy) but it was only announced today. The arrest comes just a few hours after the capture, which took place in Saint Etienne (France), of Edgardo Greco, a fugitive for 17 years, known as the “chef of the ‘Ndrangheta” and sentenced to life imprisonment for double murder. With Strangio, 42 fugitives have been arrested in the world in just under three years since the start of the I Can Project, which, the carabinieri underline, “is gathering the results of a work aimed at increasing the police forces of 13 countries (those most exposed to the threat) the awareness of the global danger from the ‘Ndrangheta, which until recently was considered an Italian folk phenomenon and not a powerful criminal organization that has made a business all over the world, which operates through encrypted platforms, pays in cryptocurrencies and pollutes the economic and financial fabric of the realities it ‘colonizes’”. (HANDLE).
(ANSA)
