Italian convict Graziano Mezina, known for serial and spectacular escapes, ranked among the eight most dangerous criminals in Italy, was arrested in his hometown in Sardinia, the local authorities announced today.
Mezina (79) should serve a sentence of 24 years in prison for international drug trafficking, the police said, adding that they found him in the mountain village of Dezulo on the island of Sardinia, where he lived as a child in a family with 11 children.
The convict, who spent more than 40 years in prison for attempted murder and kidnapping, made headlines in the Italian media after he once escaped during a transfer to another prison by jumping from a moving train.
According to the media, he once disguised himself as a priest, and in 1970 he put on women's clothes to go to a football match of his favorite club.
Mezina was later given the status of "repentant" because he played a key role in the release of a kidnapped child. The then president of Italy pardoned him.
For a time he worked as a tour guide, but in 2013 he was arrested again for forming an international drug trafficking network, which led to the revocation of his pardon.
When the police asked him why he escaped again, Mezina replied that he had spent too long in penal institutions and that the thought of dying in prison scared him.
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