Edgardo Greco Arrested After 16.

Paolo Dimitrio, or "Rocco" as locals affectionately referred to him, was an ordinary man attempting to make a livelihood as the owner of a new Italian restaurant, Caffè Rossini, in Saint-Etienne, France.

"I only want to serve regional and homemade dishes," he told La Progres, a regional French daily, in a 2021 interview about the inauguration of his new restaurant.

That same news piece, however, would assist authorities identify "Paolo Dimitrio" as Edgardo Greco, a vicious gangster wanted for many killings committed during a "mafia war" in Italy's Calabrian province. Greco was arrested on his way to work at the pizzeria where he works on by authorities from the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

According to a news release issued by Interpol regarding the case, Edgardo Greco was highly involved in Mafia activity in Italy's southern Calabria region. The Pino Sena and Perna Pranno mafia clans dominated the area in the 1990s, and the bloodshed between them was so extreme that Italian authorities and people labeled it a "mafia war."

Greco was supposedly a member of the Perna Pranno gang and had ties to the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful crime syndicate, according to CBS News. In Italy, he was also convicted of two murders and suspected of another attempted murder.

Greco bludgeoned two brothers, Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, to death with a metal rod at a fish market in 1991, according to Le Monde.

Greco unearthed their buried bodies three years later and dissolved them in acid to hide his traces.

Greco was served with an arrest warrant in 2006 as part of a bigger Mafia crackdown in the region. Greco, though, escaped before officials could apprehend him. Greco was convicted of murder in absentia and sentenced to life in prison.

Greco has been missing for almost 16 years, according to authorities. The leader of the Italian Carabinieri unit that investigated Greco, Lieutenant Col. Dario Pini, told The New York Times that the mobster was unusually difficult to track down since he did not seek to contact his family members the entire time he was at large.

On the run and facing various arrest warrants, including one from the European Union, Greco relocated to Saint-Etienne, France, and began working at local pizza businesses. For years, the mobster was untraceable until a local news report led investigators to his location.

In July 2021, an article in the Le Progres newspaper featured a story about the exciting new Italian restaurant opening in St. Etienne. A photo of "Paolo Dimitrio" standing proudly in Caffè Rossini's eating room accompanied the narrative. He told the newspaper that he'd lived in St. Etienne for 14 years but considered himself a local, and that his grandmother taught him about traditional Italian cooking, particularly Calabrian cuisine.

"No matter how hard fugitives try to blend into a quiet life overseas, they cannot dodge punishment forever," Interpol Security General Jürgen Stock said of Greco's efforts to fit in in St. Etienne.

Investigators were able to say with certainty that "Paolo Dimitrio" was Edgardo Greco after matching images of Greco to the newspaper article.

The New York Times reports that Italian detectives notified French authorities of Greco's location in St. Etienne and launched monitoring activities. Meanwhile, Caffè Rossini had collapsed, in part due to the pandemic.

On February 2, 2023, Interpol and French authorities detained Edgardo Greco on his way to work at another pizzeria.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Dario Pini, Greco first denied being the gangster, but after meeting with Italian officials from Cosenza, Greco "realized it no longer made sense to continue lying." Greco admitted to being the sought fugitive, and authorities began the process of extraditing him to Italy.

The hunt for additional high-ranking mobsters, particularly those linked to the 'Ndrangheta,' continues. Despite the fact that authorities still have a lot of work to do, Interpol and Italian investigators celebrated this triumph.