COSENZA Edgardo Greco, Leonardo Abbruzzese, Luigi Galizia: three fugitives captured. The investigative activity of the Carabinieri of Cosenza and that conducted by the men of the Operations Department led by the Lieutenant Colonel Dario Pini allowed us to track down yet another fugitive. An operation completed following the “Dalla Chiesa method“, with the use of traditional investigative techniques: the collection of information data by the police, the monitoring of the closest people, the analysis of the environmental context of reference and the constant checks on the State databases. A method adopted by the General, also taken up and used slavishly by Captain Last in the capture of Totò Riina. The same technique allowed the capture of Matteo Messina Money.
Ghost hunting
Meticulous, careful. The captured fugitives listed above were able to become ghosts, camouflaging themselves in contexts far from Calabria while maintaining relationships with their families. Precisely these links, in two cases, allowed investigators to grasp the few useful clues to try to trace the hideout or hideout of the fugitives. It was like this for Nino Abbruzzese better known as “Castellino“, and the same thing happened with Luigi Galizia, “betrayed” by his relationship with his partner: followed and monitored by the Cosenza police. Who this morning, together with colleagues from the Salerno Provincial Command, coordinated by the Catanzaro General Prosecutor’s Office, put an end to a six-month escape. Galizia, definitively sentenced to life imprisonment for the double murder of Edda Costabile and Ida Attanasio committed on 30 October 2016, is the author of “San Lorenzo del Vallo massacre”.
The sentence against him became enforceable on 7 December 2023, when the Court of Cassation confirmed the judgment issued at both first and second instance. But when the police went to look for him to take him to prison, he had already disappeared. The lifer was found during the night inside a house in Sala Consilina.
The first escape from Galicia
Immediately after the crime of Edda Costabile And Ida Attanasio, the photo of Luigi Galizia had found a place on the wanted noticeboard. The man found guilty of the double crime had not given any news about himself since the day of the “San Lorenzo massacre”: the investigators had sought him out to hear him as a person informed about the facts. On that occasion, after a week he will give in to the pressure of a complicated escape and will appear in front of the barracks.
“Castellino”, the blitz in Bari e
On 6 November 2023, in Bari, the carabinieri of the Provincial Commands of Cosenza and Bari implemented the precautionary measure of detention in prison against Leonardo Abbruzzese: considered a precious link between members and leaders of the ‘Ndrangheta-type association attributable to members of the Abbruzzese family of Lauropoli. About fifteen men from the police encircle a villa in Bari, where the scion of the “Gypsies” of Cassano allo Jonio he had found refuge. Even in this, the investigative activity and intuition of Lieutenant Colonel Dario Pini prevail. We start from the reconstruction of the movements of the subjects gravitating in the network of relationships that “Castellino” could enjoy. Men and women can use any means to reach it, even one ambulance. The cameras positioned in some transit routes considered strategic by those investigating will be decisive in first identifying and then capturing. Leonardo Abbruzzese is surprised in the house, the «bearer of embassies on behalf of the clan» is delivered. His role as messenger of communications between the members of the association and the regent of the gang Nicola Abbruzzese alias “Drive shaft” is neutralized.
The thousand faces of Edgardo Greco
Edgardo Greco, a super fugitive from the ‘Ndrangheta, had managed to change his life, move to France and recycle himself as a chef. On 2 February 2023, the Carabinieri of the Operational Department-Investigation Unit of Cosenza tracked him down and arrested him in Saint Etienne, in collaboration with their French colleagues. He was working on his own mixtures, those appreciated by the French who thought of everything except that they were faced with a killer on the run. Edgardo Greco disappeared in October 2006recipient of a European arrest warrant issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro on 16 May 2014, in relation to the imprisonment order (dated 4 April 2014) for the execution of the sentence of life imprisonment for the double murder of Stefano Bartolomeo And Joseph Bartolomeo committed in Cosenza on 5 January 1991 and for the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro also occurred in Cosenza on 21 July 1991. Ambushes occurred as part of the mafia war between the gangs “Pino-Sena” And “Perna-Pranno”, which bloodied the Cosenza area in the early 1990s.
«I’m a pizza chef, you made a mistake»
Vanity, his favorite sin. What betrayed Edgardo Greco, a former member of the ‘Ndrangheta, was not a repentant man or even a “companion” who was not very attentive to the traces left along the way, but a photo that ended up in the newspapers. Greco presents himself posed, with sunglasses and a smug smile, with the restaurant behind him: his new home.
Paolo Dimitrio (this is his new identity) managed the “Caffè Rossini Restaurant“, a place with typical Italian cuisine. Fresh and rigorously made in Italy products abound on the menu: pasta, desserts and bread. The place goes through a period of crisis and in November 2021, “Paolo” is forced to lower the shutters.
The 64-year-old from Belvedere Marittimo is married with two children. Known to all as “Rocco”, he lived far from his family (resident in Austria) and thanks to his excellent French he quickly managed to get an honest job in one of the most important restaurants in Sant’Etienne. The Carabinieri of Cosenza will look for him in Austria, following the movements of his family, but without success. Too shrewd Greco, with a profound knowledge of the criminal world and investigative techniques. In one of his many lives he also repented, only to then retrace his steps and prefer the life of a fugitive. A normal life, at least until the arrival of the police who tracked him down and arrested him. The capture and subsequent revelations about the identity of Edgardo Greco left everyone dismayed, even the owner of the restaurant “L’Agorà” where the Cosenza native had found work as a chef.
We were saying, vanity. Those shots that Greco was unable to give up were fatal to the end of his long escape and decisive for his capture.
In the first (on the left) Edgardo Greco poses in the magazine “La Tribune-Le Progrès” on the occasion of the opening of his restaurant in Saint-Etienne, in June 2021. In the second (right) he poses smiling in the kitchen of a restaurant. The military analyzed the shots and thanks to facial recognition they traced the identity of the fugitive. A system equipped with artificial intelligence was able to trace the two photos that appeared on the web using an old shot of Greco. Cross-referencing of data and information will follow before the final result: a compatibility of more than 90%. Advanced facial recognition software costs dearly to the former fugitive with a thousand faces and many lives. After a complicated judicial process, the Lyon Court of Appeal gave a favorable opinion on the extradition to Italy of Greek. Italy awaits his return while Netflix thinks of a series dedicated to him. ([email protected])
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