Minister: Italian mobster caught after 15 years

Italian police have captured a mobster at a farmhouse on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius after 15 years on the run, the country’s Foreign Minister said today.

Minister Roberto Maroni said the fugitive, Salvatore Russo, is a Camorra crime syndicate boss who has been convicted of several murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Police said Russo had several weapons, including an Uzi and a pistol, when they found him in a hiding space behind a wall on the farm during a raid today.

Investigators say Russo headed a crime clan based in Nola, a town north-east of Naples. They say his older brother Pasquale has been a fugitive since 1995.