An Italian mobster and fugitive, a former intermediary with Colombian drug cartels, was arrested after almost four years of hiding in South America.
Luigi Belvedere, one of Italy's most wanted men, has been seen in the city of Medellin, the former headquarters of the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar's cartel.
Italian police released a photo of Belvedere posing next to Escobar's grave when they announced his arrest.
Despite fleeing Europe to avoid drug-trafficking charges, he continued "activities in the organization of drug shipments from South America to Europe," police said.
Belvedere, who is believed to be around 32 years old, was on the Italian government's list of most dangerous fugitives.
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Originally from Caserta, north of Naples, he "specialized in the illegal importation of cocaine" and served as a key point of contact between mafia clans and Colombian cocaine producers, Italian police said.
In Italy, he worked for the Casalesi clan, which belongs to the notorious Comoro mafia organization.
Belvedere has been on the run since December 2020, when he was sentenced to nearly 19 years in prison for international drug trafficking.
Europol, the European Union's police agency, worked with Colombian investigators to find Belvedere in Medellin.
This city also served as a base for the Medellin drug cartel headed by Pablo Escobar.
It was founded in the 1970s and at its peak supplied about 80 percent of the world's cocaine market.
The cartel was so successful that Escobar was on the Forbes list of the world's billionaires for seven years, before the police killed him in 1993.
The Italian police announced photo Belvedere crouching next to Escobar's grave.
It reminds of the picture of Escobar himself, who posed in front of the White House in Washington when he was the head of the cartel in Medellin.
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