One of Italy’s most wanted Mafia bosses has been arrested in night raid by police after five years on the run.
Leonardo Gesualdo, 39, was dragged out of bed in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a specialist unit of the country’s military police force the Carabinieri.
Dramatic body cam footage, released by the Italian Ministry of Defence, shows armed police entering the fugitive’s hideout in Foggia, Southern Italy, catching him asleep in his bedroom.
Along with Gesualdo, police found a loaded gun which had its serial numbers filed off.
Gesualdo is a senior member of the infamously brutal Società Foggiana or Mafia Foggiana which operates across Southern Italy, mainly centered around the city of Foggia and the surrounding area.
The gang is connected to arms, drugs and people trafficking, armed robberies, murders, racketeering, and even reportedly extorting €50 per coffin from local funeral homes.
In a crime survey from 2017-2018 the gang was found to be connected to one murder a week, one robbery a day and an extortion attempt every 48 hours in Foggia province, leading to multiple extensive police operations to shut it down.
One such operation, known as the Decimabis Operation, took place in 2020 when police managed to arrest dozens of Gesualdo’s associates in targeted raids.
However, Gesualdo escaped and has been on the run for the past five years.
He was tried in absentia with 25 others and given a 12 year prison sentences for Mafia related crimes.
The fugitive’s capture marks a significant moment in Italy’s attempt to crackdown on organised crime after large scale operations against the Sicilian Mafia lead to the arrests of 181 gang members.
Commenting on the coordinated dawn raids conducted by 1,200 officers back in February, prime minister Giorgia Meloni said that the operation ‘confirms the state’s constant commitment to the fight against organised crime’.
Even with a collection of big wins for law enforcement, the Mafia still retains a large and powerful presence in Italy according to The Orginised Crime Index.
On its website it summarises: ‘Corruption remains a significant problem, and there are growing concerns about traditional mafia groups’ exploitation of public funds made available for economic recovery after COVID-19.
‘While state actors generally do not control criminal markets in Italy, corruption is widespread within the state apparatus, allowing criminal actors to benefit from lucrative public contracts at the expense of the general population.
‘Collusion between law enforcement officials and criminal actors, as well as the direct involvement of the former in criminal activity, is prominent.’
The organisation highlights that the Mafia in the country is pivoting its operations away from more violent acts to avoid attracting the attention of authorities, instead choosing to conduct more illicit activities such as smuggling.
This change has been bemoaned by some of those involved in the criminal underworld as a 2023 police wire tap of Giancarlo Romano famously revealed.
The former Palermo crime boss was recorded complaining to an associate about the standard of new recruits and wishing the Mafia was more like ‘The Godfather’.
‘The calibre these days is low, a miserable level,’ he said, before continuing: ‘If you watch “The Godfather,” the connections he had… he was very influential because of the power that he built at a political level. But us — what can we do? We’re on our knees, guys.’
Although the days The Godfather movies are based on maybe over, organised crime is unlikely to fade away any time soon, with criminality, business and corruption within the state combining to offer the modern Mafia new opportunities.
The Organised Crime Index states that in Italy: ‘a growing number of actors within the private sector, such as entrepreneurs and independent professionals, are being found to be involved in utilitarian collaborations with mafia groups, allowing them to infiltrate the legal economy and engage in economic and financial exploits that blur the lines between legality and illegality.’
