Italian Mafia Boss Linked to Van Gogh Thefts Arrested in Dubai
A suspected mafia boss and one of Italy’s most wanted
fugitives since 2016 was arrested in Dubai after spending years on the run from
the Italian police, authorities announced last week.
Raffaele Imperiale, 46, who was on the list of Italy’s most
wanted fugitives since 2016, was a top drug trafficker in the Camorra, one of
the largest and most well-known organized crime syndicates in Italy.
The mobster is also linked to the 2002 theft of two early
van Gogh paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
“Thanks to articulated and complex investigations and
fruitful international judicial and police cooperation, also through the
agencies of Interpol and Europol, it has been possible to bring to justice a
leading exponent of international drug trafficking and money laundering, who
has accumulated huge illicit assets mainly thanks to the sale of cocaine,”
Italy’s Interior Ministry said.
The Dutch painter’s View of the Sea at Scheveningen and
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen — which Italian police
described to possess “inestimable value” — were recovered in 2016 from an old
farmhouse on his property in Castellamare di Sabia, the town near Naples where
Imperiale was born.
Police found the paintings stashed behind a wall during an
investigation of the Amato Pagano clan of the Camorra.
Imperiale’s alleged criminal career launched in the 1990s
when he was living in Amsterdam and making his mark in the Neapolitan
underworld. He is believed to have soon become a primary liaison between the
Camorra and cartels in South America, maintaining strong ties to the mafia
underworld despite frequent feuds between clans.
According to Italian news agency Ansa, it was no secret that
Imperiale was living luxuriously in Dubai before his arrest. In 2017, he was
spotted with Dutch-Moroccan drug lord Ridouan Taghi, Irish mob boss Daniel
Kinahan, and Bosnian drug trafficker Edin Gačanin in Dubai’s Burj Al Arab
hotel.
Imperiale is currently awaiting extradition from the UAE to
Italy.
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