Two top Mafia mobsters were discovered holed up in an armed underground bunker after more than a decade on the run, Italian police said Friday.
Giuseppe Ferraro, a fugitive since 1998, and Giuseppe Crea, who had eluded capture since 2006, were found sleeping in their hideout near Maropati in the southern state of Calabria, Italy’s federal Polizia di Stato said in a statement.
The pair, linked to the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta mafia, had a haul of weapons including a machine gun, rifles and pistols.
Ferraro, 47, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 over more than 20 mafia-linked murders while Crea, 37, has been convicted of mafia association and is the son of a regional mob boss, the statement said.
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Today is another wonderful day for everyone and for the country because justice has won once again," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said, according to the ANSA news agency.
Police chief Alessandro Pansa said: “The operation concluded today bears witness to the extraordinary commitment of the state police in the fight against organized crime.
"Thanks are due to all the officers who, with a great sense of duty and spirit, work daily to uphold the law and decency."
