NAPLES, Italy – A purported Neapolitan mafia boss who was one of Italy's top cocaine importers has been arrested in Spain, prosecutors said Sunday.
Raffaele Amato, involved in a murderous turf war within the Camorra crime syndicate, was picked up Saturday in Marbella in a joint Italy-Spain operation, Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore said in a statement.
Amato is accused of several homicides in connection with a feud dating back to 1991 between two Camorra clans that left more than a dozen people dead, he said.
He was a top killer for boss Paolo Di Lauro, who was trying to keep control of the clan from rival Antonio Ruocco, Lepore said.
In 2006, Di Lauro was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of Mafia association, extortion and drug trafficking. On Sunday, prosecutors added subsequent charges to his sentence, along with six other people already behind bars.
Amato was arrested in Spain in 2005 but was freed a year later on a technicality.
The head of the Naples police squad, Vitrorio Pisani, said Amato had since become "the principal, or one of the principal importers of cocaine in Italy."
The Camorra, the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia for the Naples area, controls drug and arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and illegal betting rackets.
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