Convicted Mafia killer, caught in France working as chef, 16yrs after he escaped prison

Edgardo Greco, an Italian Mafia killer who escaped prison custody in 2006, was apprehended in France after at least three years of operating as a pizza chef.

According to Italian authorities, Greco was apprehended on Thursday in Saint-Étienne, marking the second prominent mafia arrest in the previous month.
Matteo Messina Denaro, a major Mafia figure who had been hiding out for 30 years, was apprehended two weeks ago while visiting a hospital in Sicily.

According to a government statement, both individuals were wanted for carrying out gruesome killings in the 1990s.

“While Messina Denaro was the boss of bosses for Sicily’s notorious “Cosa Nostra”, Greco was part of the “Ndrangheta” organised crime mob who originated from the Calabria region in Italy’s deep south,” the official said.

According to Italian media, the “Ndrangheta” are now the most powerful mafia in Italy with their tentacles stretching across Europe and South America.

Greco, 63, was wanted for the murder of two brothers during a mafia gang war between two gangs in the early 1990s.

The victims, Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, were beaten to death at a fishmonger’s in the small town of Cosenza in January 1991, the media said.

“Their bodies were never found and are believed to have been dissolved in acid,” it said.

“Greco was part of a rival gang and he was also accused of the attempted murder of another man later that year in the same town.

“When a trial judge issued an arrest warrant for him in 2006, Greco went on the run. But eight years later, he settled in the French city of Saint-Étienne, south-west of Lyon, eventually taking up the job of pizzaiolo in an Italian restaurant.

“Greco took on a new identity, calling himself Paolo Dimitrio. By now, he had been given a life sentence back in Italy and was the subject of a European arrest warrant.”