HomeNewsBriefFugitive Italian Latest Foreign Crime Boss Captured in Uruguay
BRIEF

Fugitive Italian Latest Foreign Crime Boss Captured in Uruguay

COCAINE EUROPE / 8 SEP 2017 BY PARKER ASMANN EN

An Italian crime boss and one of Italy's most wanted criminals has been arrested in Uruguay after decades on the run, highlighting another case in which an international criminal has sought refuge in the country.

On September 3, authorities arrested Rocco Morabito -- the so-called "cocaine king" of the 'Ndrangheta crime organization based in the Calabria region of southwest Italy -- at a hotel in the capital city of Montevideo in southern Uruguay, according to an Interior Ministry press release

Interpol issued a red notice for Morabito in 1994, after he fled the country following his conviction of criminal association, drug trafficking and other serious crimes between 1988 and 1994, according to an Italian Interior Ministry press release.

After six months of intelligence gathering, authorities in Uruguay discovered that Morabito had obtained an Uruguayan identification card using a Brazilian passport with a false name. They used this to track his movements and locate him. 

SEE ALSO: Coverage of European Organized Crime

In two raids at Morabito's home in Punta del Este -- just east of Montevideo and where he had allegedly been living for the past 10 years -- and a storage unit, authorities seized $54,251 in cash, 2,540 Uruguayan pesos (around $88), 150 photos of Morabito with different "clothes and skin tones," as well as a Glock 9 mm pistol, among other things. 

Morabito was allegedly responsible for organizing logistics for the transport of drug shipments within Italy and distribution in Milan for the 'Ndrangheta -- a violent criminal organization with links to Mexico's Zetas and Gulf Cartel, the "Tony Montana" of Peru and several other criminal groups in Latin America, El Pais reported.

Specifically, Morabito is accused of attempting to transport 592 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil into Italy in 1992, as well as organize the transport of two cocaine shipments into Italy in 1993, the first of 32 kilograms and the other of 630 kilograms, according to authorities in Uruguay. 

InSight Crime Analysis 

Rocco Morabito is just the latest case of the region's criminals settling in this Southern Cone nation to elude prosecution or unsuspectingly conduct illicit activities outside of their primary country of operation. In 2016, authorities in Uruguay arrested several suspects linked to Mexico's little-known Los Cuinis crime group, thought to have links to the powerful Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (Cartel de Jalisco - Nueva Generación). One of the group's members -- who also reportedly lived in Punta del Este -- was thought to have been laundering money for the group through real estate investments in Uruguay.

SEE ALSO: Uruguay News and Profile

Uruguay's allure comes from the country long being thought of as one of Latin America's safest and least homicidal nations, in addition to being a "major money laundering" hub, according to the US State Department's 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR).

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 16 JAN 2023

Record seizures of cocaine in Portugal have raised fears Brazil's PCC may be getting increasingly involved.

COCAINE / 13 APR 2023

Authorities in Russia made a large-scale seizure of cocaine in Moscow, following another in St. Petersburg last month.

COCAINE / 5 NOV 2021

US prosecutors have charged an alleged MS13 leader in Honduras and another man thought to be one of his main…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…