He is one of the most wanted mafia bosses in Italy and one of the most important drug dealers in Europe: the 46-year-old Raffaele Imperiale. He belongs to the feared and powerful Camorra, a mafia organization from Naples. Now the Italian has been arrested in Dubai after having fled for decades.
On Thursday afternoon, the Italian police in Naples confirmed the arrest of Imperiale after the Dutch newspaper «De Telegraaf» reported it.
Imperiale was arrested in Dubai on August 4th. The arrest could have been kept secret for two weeks for investigative reasons, writes «De Telegraaf». Imperiale is currently being held in the United Arab Emirates while the Italian Ministry of Justice is finalizing extradition proceedings.
Lived in the most exclusive luxury hotel in Dubai
The 46-year-old mafia boss, like many gangsters from Europe, settled in Dubai so that he could coordinate his business without being disturbed by the authorities. The mafia boss lived in the most famous hotel in Dubai – the luxurious Burj al Arab.
From the United Emirates, Imperiale worked closely with other European drug lords, as the “Frankfurter Allgemeine” writes. The Italian mafia boss was in contact with the network of Ridouan Taghi (43). The Moroccan was considered the number one public enemy of the Netherlands and is responsible for several violent crimes. He has been on trial for six murders since March. Among other things, he is suspected of having been involved in the murder of the Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries in early July.
Decrypted messages from crypto cell phones are said to prove that Imperiale and Taghi’s network organized joint cocaine deliveries to Europe and was involved in planning murders.
Van Gogh painting bought on black market
Imperiale had already left Italy in the 1990s to run a coffee shop in Amsterdam. According to the Italian investigators, he began building his impressive network for international drug trafficking in the early 2000s – especially with cocaine.
Thanks to his illegally accumulated wealth, Imperiale was able to get hold of two Van Gogh paintings on the black market. They were stolen from a museum in Amsterdam in 2002 and found in the Imperiale country house in Naples in 2016. A Camorra member who had decided to cooperate with the judiciary is said to have betrayed Imperiale, writes “Die Presse”. (gin)