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Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Rocco Morabito: How a fight with his wife led to the downfall of Italy's 'Cocaine King'

republished from ibtimes.uk

The 'Ndrangheta manage at least 60 per cent of Europe's cocaine trade, and deal directly with Mexican Cartels, Zetas and CDG, along with South American drug cartels for their supply. They also traffic heroin, cannabis and weapons.



The downfall of an Italian mob boss who evaded police for 23 years came after he checked in to a hotel because of an argument with his wife, it has been revealed.

Dubbed the "Cocaine King of Milan", Rocco Morabito had been wanted since 1994 after playing a major role in the drug trafficking trade between South America and Italy. The 50-year-old – a member of the notorious Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate – is said to have been living in Uruguay since 2002.

He was recently arrested in a downtown hotel in the country's capital of Montevideo, authorities said Monday (4 September).

Investigators claimed he had checked in to a room alone after having an argument with his wife.
Uruguay's Ministry of Interior said it had access to the hotel's guest check-in system, allowing investigators to finally pinpoint his location.

Video footage of the arrest shows him handcuffed on a bed wearing only underpants and a black T-shirt.

Named as one of Italy's five most wanted organised criminals, Morabito had been living under an alias and using a false Brazilian passport.

He fled Italy and arrived in Brazil before moving to Pocitos in Uruguay. He then settled with his family in a luxury villa in the exclusive coastal resort of Punta del Este, investigators said.

His capture comes after a joint operation by Uruguayan and Italian authorities, with officers said to have first discovered his whereabouts when he enrolled his daughter in a local school under his own name.

Authorities in Uruguay say the subsequent six-month operation to locate Morabito saw a breakthrough when his name then appeared on the hotel guest list.

Morabito's wife, whose passport states she was born in Angola, was also detained.

She stated that she knew her husband had "problems with the law" but that he'd never told her the full story, Italian media reported.

A number of items were also seized by investigators, including a Glock 9mm pistol, 13 mobile phones, 12 bank cards, two cars, a Portuguese passport, jewels and chequebooks.

Nearly $50,000 in cash and bearer shares worth $100,000 were also seized.

Pending an extradition request from Italy, Morabito has been imprisoned in Uruguay for holding false papers and identity theft.

He faces a 30-year prison sentence on return to his home country after being convicted in his absence on drug trafficking charges and for being a member of a criminal organisation.

The arrest represents a major breakthrough for Italian prosecutors.

The 'Ndrangheta is among the world's richest and most powerful organised crime groups, according to a 2013 Interpol report.

With a speciality in cocaine trafficking, prosecutors say the crime gang positions its top bosses in South America so they can be close to drug producers and ensure deals are secured.

According to his lawyer, Morabito has been leading "a normal life" since 1994 and has not engaged in any criminal activities.

Federico Cafiero de Raho, chief prosecutor for the Calabria region, said Morabito had played "a major role" in the cocaine trade between South America and Milan.


This video has additional information

40 comments:

  1. Hi chivis.
    Reports here say that he was living in hotel,that's why they found all the cash and the gun ect..
    He had registered his daughter under her real name at the school she attended.
    Don't matter to much I guess

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  2. You will never see Ismael Zambada do the same error. The Capo is in plain sight and they avoid him

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    Replies
    1. Mayos the number informant for the united states and mexico governments.

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    2. He's not that dumb, you know he's hiding somewhere in Sinaloa. The moment he steps to omother state he will be captured

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    3. The Mexican Godfather is well insulated and protected.

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  3. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-field-operations-seizes-nearly-4-million-meth-commercial-trailer

    CBP Field Operations Seizes Nearly $4 Million in Meth in a Commercial Trailer at the Pharr International Bridge

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  4. My apologies but aren't the Zetas and CDG Mexican cartels themselves?

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    Replies
    1. Two different cartels but once worked together as one.

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    2. Definitely knew that, was just pointing out the sentence by the author/journalist.

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    3. It states they are cartels at the top intro sentence. The cartels worked together with the Italians but also after the split, especially Zetas. I read an article here on BB about it.

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    4. zetas and golfas were carlos salinas de gortari family jewels, after they burned their arses a bit too much, they just got replaced by cjng, "Las Jaliskas"

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  5. Why would he even use the CDG or Zetas? If they are so rich just make a connect in Colombia, Peru, or Bolivia. Money takes care of the rest. If he was using CDG or Zetas for coke that just seems like another person to pay. These Mafia types do not attract the bright or brilliant people.

    Hi I'm on the run and I'll enroll my daughter in school under her real name. He deserves to get caught for making such a dumb mistake

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    1. Thats the smartest comment on here. Why buy the coke from second hands. Go straight to colombia or peru or bolivia. Then again. This dumb shit is calabrian. Not sicilian. Somehow this guy and the people hes working for are not very smart. And what dumb shit decides to hide out in mexico. Cartels will snitch you out themselves like its ok to be a snitch.

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    2. Riesgo, y facilidad de transporte o quien sabe. Think they would rather ensure safe passage from Mexico to EU than the long distance between Sur America & EU.

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    3. You guys have no idea in what capacity he use the Mexican DTO. He may have used their infrastructures already established, to store and move it from a Mexican port instead of directly from source country. Using the Gulf Stream is a popular and effective method and using those commercial ports are popular for goods moving from MX, USA and on to Europe. I think you both are silly for not considering the logistics and infrastructure it requires to move ton quantities of any type of product around the globe.

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    4. The Italians buy from whoever they can. It was probably a quick and new relationship, whereas buying direct requires a great deal of time nurturing contacts. Once the dope hits the EU, the price multiplies substantially, even with how much they dilute it. As said, it doesn't matter who they get it from, so long as it's consistent.

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    5. the smartest comment on here 11:17

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    6. here is an article i posted in 2013 about Mexican cartel connection with Ndrangheta. I have posted mulitple articles regarding this beginning in 2011 after the split.

      http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2013/07/worlds-most-powerful-cocaine-broker.html

      and in 2014 insight crime wrote this in an article, although it implies the working relationship was new, which is factually incorrect as the relationship had long been established, nonetheless the article has some good points. see below

      "Powerful Mexican drug cartels, namely the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, have entered into a business relationship with several Italian criminal networks, including the 'Ndrangheta, an organization that encompasses the Coluccio and Aquino families in New York and the Schirripa family in Calabria in southern Italy. Italian prosecutor Nicola Grattieri has declared that these connections can largely be attributed to the Mexican cartels' need for a new market and the Italian cartels' quest for new drug providers and safer routes and warehouses for housing shipments."

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    7. 11:17 you got it man! Agree

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    8. 8:24 are you that dumb? He was in Uruguay not Mexico, try reading the article before posting the wronf info.

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    9. Or maybe there was a language barrier.lol

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    10. The 'Ndrangheta have longstanding ties to the Zetas and CDG. If you don't know why they would be working with Mexican cartels instead of dealing with the suppliers in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, etc. directly you don't know much about the drug trade.

      The Mexicans are the kings of getting drugs from Point A to Point B. The 'Ndrangheta don't have that infrastructure. The suppliers in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, etc. don't have that infrastructure. The assumption that the 'Ndrangheta is stupid for working with Mexicans when they could do it themselves shows a complete lack of understanding of the criminal underworld.

      The Italian mafioso are very prevalent in Mexico and South America.

      I used to spend a lot of time in Playa del Carmen and there were a ew businesses (including a great pizza place i'd visit and a gym across the street from it) owned by the 'Ndrangheta. I would see them hanging out at the pizza place. I believe it was a pair of brothers that were the heavy hitters. One of them, along with their son, ended up being busted with a plane load of coke in the U.S.

      Keep up the good work BB!

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    11. Actually the Mexican cartels own mostly whatever coke comes out of Colombia so you have to go through them... ever since Pablo died a lot of things changed there.

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    12. 7:05 most thing that changed is alvaro uribe velez now owns safely all the drug trafficking he wants including mexico, and he pays his partners in crime, as long as they were not associated to the old Mustache Petes, and the US is a favorite parna.

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    13. christian castro married some uruguayan woman,
      president W bought hisself some uruguayan land, said to contain the biggest underground fresh water acquifer in the world, and uruguayan dictators made sure to have a real eclectic clientele of cosmopolitan interests and clientele just in case to secure the uruguayan democracy in the condor world...

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  6. Thats because mayo is running scared

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  7. His first mistake was getting married in the first place.

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    Replies
    1. And I suppose having children was his next mistake?

      Lonely life getting to ya?

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    2. Yeah having kids was his other mistake and the mistake before that was getting a gf

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    3. Hookers and Heroin should been the taste of choice

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    4. His second mistake was a life of crime. No, children are never a mistake and I have the UTMOST respect for fathers and mothers - they are greater people than I am.

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  8. If this is really such a success as it is claimed to be there will be no more coke available in Europe, right??

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  9. bitches. remember escobar?

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  10. Fool got too confortable in urgay, guess he paid for being careless.

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  11. Women? can't be with them, Cant be without them! Ha!!!

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  12. I don't get why europeans seem to love cocaine so much. They haven't heard of meth yet?

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  13. I own 'Ndrangheta.

    - Totto Riina

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  14. The wife informed!
    He must have always known she was a loability, a threat to his freedom.
    I wonder how many times he thought of dumping her, eliminating a real threat to his freedom.
    Like many men he was too soft and now will pay a heavy price.

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  15. Maybe he wanted to get arrested to get away from her.

    ReplyDelete

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