Notorious fugitive mafia don finally caught in routine traffic stop

A brutal mob boss is back behind bars after a routine police traffic stop put an end to his run.

Notorious mobster Mobster Vittorio Raso was mistakenly released two years ago after being arrested in Spain on a warrant from Italian police, who were looking for him on charges of organized crime, extortion and drug trafficking.

The high-ranking member of southern Italy’s ruthless ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate had disappeared shortly after his arrest in 2020 when Spain’s National Court freed him over a warrant mismatch.

READ MORE: Mafia boss on the run for 20 years was bitten by cops who spotted him on Google Street View

Yet Raso, 43,’s freedom only lasted until Tuesday June 21, when his car was stopped in Castelldefels during a routine document check by Spanish police.

Raso’s forged papers were soon revealed to be fake, and he was arrested and his fingerprints taken to confirm his true identity.

Photos of the arrest show Raso smiling broadly at his police captors.

He was handed over to the Mossos d’Esquadra – the police in Spain’s Catalonia region – and is still being held at nearby Gava police station.

Raso – nicknamed ‘Exhausted’ – is due to appear in court today (Thursday).

Engaged in racketeering, drug trafficking, loan sharking, arms trafficking, money laundering, fraud, extortion, murder, robbery and kidnapping, the ‘Ndrangheta is considered the one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world.

Made up of an extensive network of ‘ndrinaor clans, based in the ‘toe of the Italian boot’, Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta’ is said to bring in nearly £50m a year.

For more incredible stories from the TSWT, be sure to sign up for one of our newsletters here

Members of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia are under investigation by the Australian Federal Police who have used a covert app known as AN0M to launch one of the largest and most significant measures of crackdown on organized crime in history.

Last year’s Operation Ironside provided TSWT with a comprehensive dossier on more than 5,000 mafia members living in Australia to carry out their organized crime.

READ NEXT: