Italian police nab Mafia chief

Italian police yesterday arrested top mafia chief Franco Li Bergolis, one of the most wanted and dangerous fugitives in the country, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano said.

The 32-year-old leading figure in a southern Mafia clan in the Puglia region, was handed a life sentence in absentia in July on charges of ordering a murder, drug trafficking and extortion.

“Thanks to this operation,” Mr Alfano said, “the state has proven its strength in the fight against organised crime”.

Two of Li Bergolis’s brothers are in prison for mafia connections, drug trafficking and extortion, while their father was assassinated in 1995 and uncle too last October, as part of the war between mafia clans in Italy.