An infamous Italian mafia boss, Rocco Morabito, reportedly escaped through a hole in an Uruguayan prison roof late Sunday night.
Morabito, accompanied by three other prisoners, immediately robbed occupants of a nearby home upon escaping, according to a statement by Matteo Salvini, the Italian Interior minister.
Morabito and his accomplices were allegedly hospitalized in the prison infirmary prior to the escape. The prisoners reportedly escaped through an exposed hole in the ceiling of the room, climbed to the roof of the prison and fled to a neighboring apartment. Morabito and his accomplices then moved to rob a 70-year-old woman occupying the apartment, according to authorities. (RELATED: Police Arrest 24-Year-Old Who Lives With His Parents In Murder Of Mafia Crime Boss)
The woman, Elida Ituarte, claims that the four men jumped over the barbed wire-covered prison wall onto her balcony. When asked why they broke into her home, Morabito reportedly told Ituarte that they were called by her caretaker to fix a leaking pipe.
After robbing Ituarte, she apparently used her house keys to let them out, allowing the four men to escape onto the street. The prison is centrally located in Montivideo, surrounded by a series of restaurants, apartments and shops. The current whereabouts of Morabito and the other prisoners are unknown.
Hailing from the southern Italian commune of Africo, Morabito originally migrated to Milan at age 23 and made a name for himself as an elusive cocaine smuggler.
In September 2017, Morabito and his Angolan wife had been arrested at a luxury hotel in Uruguay’s capitol of Montivideo after nearly 23 years on the run. He was awaiting his extradition by Italian police after being investigated for international drug trafficking.
In 1994, Morabito was sought by police after attempting to smuggle $7.65 million worth of cocaine from Italy into Brazil. As leader of Italy’s most powerful organized crime group, the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, Morabito is revered as the “Cocaine king of Milan” and is one of Italy’s most wanted criminals.
In 1995, Morabito was sentenced by the Italian government in absentia to 28 years in prison for charges of mafia association and drug trafficking. The sentence was later extended to 30 years.
The three other prisoners who escaped: Leonardo Abel Sinopoli Azcoaga, was arrested for a crime of forgery of document and theft; Matías Sebastián Acosta González; Bruno Ezequiel Díaz, arrested for one account of homicide, were all awaiting extradition to Brazil and Argentina.
Salvini feels partially responsible for Morabito’s escape and vows to discover what exactly allowed the criminals to break out of the Montivideo prison. “I make two commitments, first to shed full light on how he escaped, asking for an immediate explanation from the Montevideo government,” Salvini said in a public statement.
È sconcertante e grave che un criminale come Rocco Morabito, boss della ‘ndrangheta, sia riuscito a fuggire da una galera dell’Uruguay mentre era in attesa di essere estradato in Italia. https://t.co/aTeaM8RDVM
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) June 24, 2019
Salvini views Morabito’s escape before his scheduled extradition to Italy as “disconcerting and serious” and promises that Morabito will be captured.
“I will ask for immediate explanations from the Montevideo government and we will continue to hunt down Morabito, wherever he is,” Salvini states.
The Interior Ministries of Italy and Uruguay in addition to the U.S Embassy in Uruguay did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.
