Italy arrests drug trafficker captured in Syria

A Naples drug trafficker on Europol's most wanted list and on the run since 2003 was extradited from Syria and arrested in Rome on Tuesday.

Bruno Carbone, 45, a major drug supplier to Naples' Camorra mafia who fled an Italian court's sentence of 20 years in prison for international drug trafficking was detained at Rome's Ciampino airport on Tuesday morning, Naples police said.

An official in a northwestern Syrian area held by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group said Carbone was arrested "while passing through the 'liberated' areas in March with the aim of reaching the regions under the control of the regime" of President Bashar al-Assad.

He was "handed over to his country according to the rules in force," the official, Mohammad Sankari, said on the Telegram channel, without adding details.

According to the Italian media, Carbone spent a large part of his time while absconding in the United Arab Emirates.

He later moved to Europe and then to Turkey before relocating to regime-held areas in Syria "which he considered the best haven from the law," HTS security service spokesman Dhia' al-Umar said, according to the SITE intelligence group which monitors jihadist websites.

He passed himself off as a Mexican who fled his country for selling fake Rolex watches, SITE said.

The United Arab Emirates announced Carbone's arrest in 2021, only to discover that the arrested man "was a stand-in presented by Bruno as bait so that he could escape again," Dhia' al-Umar said.