Police capture Mafia boss

Police today captured one of Italy’s most dangerous mob fugitives as the state pressed its war on the ’ndrangheta, the Calabrian crime syndicate believed to be overtaking the Sicilian Mafia in dominance.

Orazio De Stefano was taken at dawn in a raid in an apartment in Reggio Calabria, investigators said.

“Police today captured a dangerous, able and powerful fugitive,” said Giuseppe Lumia, a member of Parliament’s anti-Mafia commission.

De Stefano, 45, was considered one of the five most dangerous mob fugitives in Italy by investigators.

Investigators say he assumed command of the De Stefano crime clan after his brother, Paolo, was killed in 1985. The brother’s killing triggered a war among rival clans that over the next few years saw some 100 killings. Two other De Stefano brothers had been previous killed.

On Wednesday, in a raid in the rugged mountains of southern Calabria, police captured another top fugitives of the Italian underworld, Giuseppe Morabito, an alleged top ’ndrangheta boss.

“De Stefano and Morabito aren’t isolated bosses, but the heads of a very extensive network of personal and family relationships,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Lumia as saying from Calabria.

Calabria is the home of the ’ndrangheta, which, investigators say has been aggressively expanding drug trafficking operations, particularly in cocaine with Colombian cartels.

Defections of mobsters have weakened Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, while the ’ndrangheta has seen relatively few turncoats.

De Stefano had been on the run since 1998. He is suspected in kidnappings and extortion rackets, according to investigators.

Dealing another blow to organised crime in southern Italy, police captured Corrado Cucurachi, a suspected boss of the Sacred United Crown crime syndicate in Puglia. The suspect was arrested at Bari airport Saturday, authorities said.