Two suspected Italian mafia bosses arrested in Spain

January 28, 2009 by The Boss · Leave a Comment

MADRID (AFP) — A suspected Italian mafia leader on the run for nearly two years and his alleged deputy have been arrested near Madrid, authorities said on Tuesday.

The two men were arrested late Monday after they left a restaurant in Majadahonda outside the Spanish capital following an investigation by Spanish and Italian police, along with Interpol, according to Spain’s interior ministry.

Antonio Caiazzo, 50, and Francesco Simeoli, 40, are believed to be bosses of a clan in the Naples-area mafia, the Camorra, Naples police said in a statement.

Caiazzo has been on the run since March 2007 after being sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Naples court.

Simeoli, believed to be his deputy, has been a fugitive since June 2007, when an arrest warrant was issued for him for alleged links to the Camorra.

The arrest warrant also targeted Caiazzo and about 30 others believed to be affiliated with the Vomero clan.

Spanish police said in a statement that the clan is known for “a brutal internal Camorra war that culminated in 1997 with the Aranella massacre, in which a woman died in the crossfire between two clans.”

Caiazzo’s clan escaped unscathed, becoming the “uncontested leader,” the statement said.

Their capture comes after a series of arrests of suspected Camorra members in recent months in Spain, where the mafia has been accused of working with Colombian drug traffickers.

“The Camorra and Colombian cartels work together in Spain” where the Naples mafia manages part of the cocaine trafficking, an Italian police official told the El Pais daily earlier this month — three days after the arrest in Barcelona of another Camorra leader, Salvatore Zazo.

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