Fugitive mobsters found in underground bunker in Italy

Italian police have discovered an underground bunker in the countryside of southern Calabria with two fugitive mobsters holed up inside.

The convicted ‘Ndrangheta clan bosses had a dozen firearms, including a Kalashnikov, and a pasta pot neatly hanging on a wall. Tomatoes, salad, and what looked like a plate of ricotta were on the counter when police raided the bunker early yesterday.

Vines and bushes camouflaged the hideout.

Police said they are trying to find a network of accomplices they suspect helped Giuseppe Crea to elude capture for 10 years and Giuseppe Ferraro for almost 20 years.

Crea faces 22 years in prison for Mafia association; Ferraro was sentenced to life imprisonment, including for a murder conviction.

The cocaine-trafficking ‘Ndrangheta is one of the world’s most powerful criminal organisations.

“They were living in a concrete bunker hidden by dense bushes and trees,” said prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho, describing the hideout in the mountains near the town of Maropati in the Reggio Calabria region of southern Italy.

“They were living like animals, a cold life cut off from society,” but with enough contact with the underworld to rule on gang matters when necessary, Cafiero De Raho told a press conference.