Italian mafia boss disguised as pizza chef arrested in France

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - A convicted Italian mafia boss has been caught in France, where he had been working as a pizza chef for at least three years, after 16 years on the run, Italian and French investigators said.

Edgardo Greco, 63, was wanted for the murder of two brothers killed during a "mafia war" between two gangs in the early 1990s.

Prosecutors believe he belongs to the 'Ndrangheta, a powerful mafia organization founded in the southern Italian region of Calabria. The 'Ndrangheta is now one of the strongest criminal organizations in the world, with ties across Europe and South America.

Italy's Carabinieri military police said in a statement that investigators had traced Greco's network since 2019, eventually leading them to the French city of Saint-Etienne, where Greco was arrested on Thursday.

His capture is the second important mafia arrest by Italian authorities in a few weeks. It followed the arrest of mafia "boss of bosses" Matteo Messina Denaro, who had been on the run for 30 years. Both men were wanted for committing murders in the 1990s.

Greco went on the run in 2006 after a judge issued an arrest warrant against him. Eight years later, he settled in Saint-Etienne, southwest of Lyon, where he started a job as a "pizzaiolo" in an Italian restaurant.

Greco used a new identity, using the name of Paolo Dimitrio. In July 2021, he even appeared in a local newspaper article, publicizing his restaurant's Italian home-made recipes, including ravioli, risotto and tagliatelle.