Fugitive Italian mobster blows cover celebrating Napoli win

Vincenzo La Porta has been arrested in Greece after being on the run for 11 years. The police managed to track him down thanks to his devotion to his hometown soccer team.

A "white collar" member of the Italian mafia's Contini clan, Vincenzo La Porta, was arrested by Italian and Greek authorities on the island of Corfu after 11 years on the run, authorities announced Saturday.

The 60-year-old criminal, who was on Italy's 100 most-wanted fugitives list and previously sentenced in absentia to 14 years and four months in prison for tax evasion and tax fraud, was apprehended after police spotted him in a photo of a group of football fans. La Porta was out celebrating his hometown football team, Napoli, winning the Italian championship for the first time in 33 years.

Italian police say La Porta was involved in money laundering for the Naples Camorra syndicate. The authorities also said they had never given up their search for the gangster, following his financial activities online for years and waiting for him to make a mistake that would betray his whereabouts.

Italian authorities managed to identify La Porta on a photo of Napoli fans celebrating at a restaurant balcony in Corfu. He was sporting a baseball cap and holding a pale blue Napoli scarf in his hand.

Carabinieri say they used traditional investigative techniques to ascertain his whereabouts and quickly dispatched a team of agents to apprehend him. He was arrested Friday when police and military set up a roadblock, trapping him as he rode his moped near his home.

Italian media say La Porta had built a new life for himself in Greece — financed by ongoing Camorra activity — with a second family and sham business operations.

Italian authorities on Saturday said he was betrayed by "his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team," adding that "La Porta couldn't resist celebrating."

La Porta is currently in a Greek prison awaiting extradition to Italy to serve his sentence.

js,dj (AP, AFP)

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