Italian ‘cocaine king’ mafia boss escapes from prison in Uruguay

An Italian Mafia boss nicknamed the “Cocaine King of Milan” broke out of a Uruguayan prison by climbing out of a hole in the roof, authorities said Monday.

Notorious mobster Rocco Morabito and three other inmates made their exit from the Montevideo central prison Sunday night and immediately robbed the owner of a nearby house for cash, the interior ministry of Uruguay said in a statement.

The suspected head of the powerful ‘Ndrangheta organized crime group was one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives for more than two decades, prior to his 2017 arrest near Punta del Este, a luxurious resort town on the southeastern coast of Uruguay.

Morabito, 52, had been awaiting extradition to Italy on charges of Mafia association, drug trafficking and other crimes at the time of his escape.

“It is disconcerting and serious that a criminal like Rocco Morabito, head of the ‘Ndrangheta, has managed to escape from a prison in Uruguay while waiting to be extradited to Italy,” said Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

“We will continue the hunt for Morabito, wherever he is, to put him in jail as he deserves.”

Based out of Calabria in Southern Italy, the ‘Ndrangheta mafia is thought to control about 80 percent of Europe’s cocaine trade, according to the BBC.

As part of the group, Morabito was behind the smuggling of hundreds of kilos of cocaine from South America to Italy, police say.

With Post wires

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