ROME (AP) — Hometown passion for this year’s soccer champions from Naples has betrayed the hideout of a longtime crime fugitive from Italy, who was captured while riding a motor scooter on a Greek island, Italian police said Saturday.
Naples-based Carabinieri paramilitary police said the man, who was on Italy’s list of 100 most dangerous fugitives, was spotted in a photo of fans in a restaurant in Corfu, who were celebrating after the Napoli soccer squad clinched Italy’s top league championship a few weeks ago.
Police then headed to Corfu to tail the fugitive, identified by them as 60-year-old Vincenzo La Porta, who had been on the lam for 11 years.
They didn’t specify when his recent arrest was carried out, but said officers blocked him going down a Corfu street on a motor scooter.
La Porta, considered close to a crime clan of the Naples-based Camorra syndicate, has been convicted in absentia of criminal association, tax evasion and fraud, the police said.
He is now in a Greek jail awaiting extradition to Italy, where he is due to serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months. It wasn’t immediately clear whether La Porta had a lawyer.
Police said they had been following La Porta’s online activity, including financial movements, and waited for him to make a false move that could tip them off to his whereabouts.
“Betraying him was his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team,’’ police said in a statement. ”With the championship victory, La Porta couldn’t resist celebrating.”
Investigators spotted him in a photo of celebrants of the restaurant, where he was holding in his hands a scarf in the sky-blue colors of his hometown team.
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