Italy has requested the extradition of one of its nationals, the subject of a European arrest warrant and alleged member of the ‘Ndrangheta, arrested in Lyon on July 11, we learned on Wednesday July 19 from a source. policewoman.
Aged 27, Michele Bellocco was arrested during an identity check at Perrache station by agents of the Border Police (PAF), who then noticed his false papers, explained to Agence France- Press the zonal director of the PAF, Laurent Astruc.
Taken into custody, “He was quickly confronted with his true identity” and the “Italian police quickly got in touch with us after he called his mother in Italy”added Mr. Astruc, specifying that the PAF had also informed the national direction of the Judicial Police.
The Lyon environment
Targeted by a European arrest warrant and sentenced in absentia, Mr. Bellocco is the subject of a request for surrender to the Italian authorities. According to the Italian press, he is a member of the ‘Ndrangheta, the famous Calabrian mafia.
In November 2021, he escaped his house arrest, leaving his home in Rosarno (Calabria), before his final sentence of eight years and four months in prison for various crimes against property and persons, thefts in pharmacies and supermarkets and resistance to a person holding public authority, between 2014 and 2017.
Still according to the Italian media, the Italian carabinieri looked for his trace, analyzing the movements of the family members and taking an interest in the Lyon area, where a large Calabrian immigrant community has lived for decades.