Scruffy and unkempt, Antonio Caiazzo seemed like just another Italian who had come to Spain for the sun and good life. The reality was very different: he was one of the deadliest capos, or bosses, of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia.

Caiazzo, 51, who was arrested in Madrid this week, was involved in a bloody turf war in the 1990s in which innocent bystanders were killed in shoot-outs on the streets of Naples.

In 2007 he was imprisoned for 12 years for Mafia association and aggravated extortion. Caiazzo went on the run, however, staying one step ahead of the law – until now.

His arrest has highlighted the growing menace posed by the Italian Mafia in Spain. Twelve capos have been arrested in the past three months, forcing police to admit that the Camorra and N’drangheta from Calabria and the Sicilian Mafia are now a very real presence on the Iberian peninsula.

Many come to Spain attracted by the opportunity to deal cocaine or to launder millions of euros through property. Others hope to escape the unwelcome attention of Italian investigators and Carabinieri by blending into the established Italian communities in Spain.

A growing awareness among Spanish judicial authorities about the organised criminals has forced police to cooperate with their Italian counterparts.

Among those arrested in Spain are Francesco Simeoli, Patrizio Bosti, Raffaele Laurenti, Mario Santafede, Marco Assegnati, and one of the Camorra “soldiers”, Paolo Pesce.

General Gaetano Maruccia, the head of the Neapolitan Carabinieri, said: “There are many camorristas in Spain. Some deal in drugs, others are fugitives. They know the terrain, they invest in construction and have highly efficient companies which allow them to launder money from extortion and drugs.”

Barcelona, with its large Italian population, has proved popular with Mafia bosses who want to disappear. Salvatore Zazo, 52, was arrested near La Sagrada Familia, Antoni GaudÍ’s unfinished Modernist church, earlier this month.

Zazo was the boss of the Mazzarella clan within the Camorra and was wanted for trafficking cocaine between Colombia and Naples. Within the Camorra there are up to 80 clans; Zazo negotiated drug deals between three of them, authorities said.

A source at the Catalan regional police told The Times: “These capos are coming to Barcelona because there is a large Italian population and they can disappear easily or they can operate more easily. It is also quite close to Italy – and the weather is quite nice, which is important.”

Roberto Saviano, the Italian journalist behind the bestselling book and film Gomorrah, about the Neapolitan Mafia, said that Spain has long been regarded by the Camorra as a crucial part of its criminal empire. He said that Camorra bosses refer to the Iberian peninsula as la costa nostra – our coast.

Mafia bosses seek sun and safety on la costa nostra – Graham Keeley in Barcelona – From The Times – January 31, 2009 – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5622165.ece

The Guardia Civil have arrested an alleged member of the Camorra Naples mafia, Paolo Pesce, in an operation carried out by the Organised Crime Squad in Fuengirola.

The 44 year old member of the ‘Mariano Clan’ has been on the run from the authorities for 17 years, and faces a life sentence for homicide. Reports indicate that he tried to pass himself off as Spanish.

The arrest was made yesterday in a phone call shop under a European arrest warrant by a joint Civil Guard and Italian Carabinero team who were waiting for him to arrive there to contact his family.

Naples Mafia member arrested in Fuengirola – By h.b. – Dec 18, 2008 – 7:31 AM – This story was found at: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_19325.shtml

The Bulgarian mafia controls the Madrid discotheques’ security business while the gang of the Bulgarian known as Ivo is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the Spanish capital, an article published in the Spanish newspaper ABC reported.

According to the article, of all Bulgarian “discotheque” mafia, the most dangerous one was the “Gang of Ivo”. Ivo was notorious in the Madrid underworld, had his own army of guards, and personally hired the security of the discotheques in the Spanish capital.

A police source had informed the Spanish newspaper about the wide-spread practice of Bulgarian mafia, forcing Madrid club owners to hire their people as security guards. The guards worked on a commission of 20% of their salary – it they made EUR 100 per night, EUR 20 were going into the Mafia’s cash-box.

The publication further explains that the “Gang of Ivo” had over 100 members – mostly Bulgarians, Romanians and Ukrainians, which the local police had describer a s”huge gorillas, inducing fear and disregarding everybody’s basic rights.”

The author of the article writes that the Bulgarian mafia was involved in the illegal drugs business and in murders for hire. The illegal drugs were sold in the clubs controlled by the Bulgarians.

“Bulgarian Mafia controls Madrid’s nightlife” – 26. November 2008. | 09:56 – Source: Sofia News Agency – This story was found at: http://www.emportal.co.yu/en/news/region/70673.html

An alleged member of the Camorra mafia based in Naples, 55 year old Mario Santafede, was arrested on Saturday in Barcelona in a joint operation between Spanish and Italian police.

The man has been hiding in Spain for some years and has allegedly been directing drug running operations from Latin America from here. Cocaine runs from Colombia and Ecuador have been at the centre of his operations.

He has now been handed over to the National Court in Madrid where he will appear shortly, probably facing extradition to Italy where he is on the list of the country’s most-wanted.

Camorra mafia member arrested in Barcelona – By h.b. – Sep 21, 2008 – This story was found at: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_18097.shtml

Mario Santafede member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia detained in the car park of a luxury apartment in the northeastern city of Barcelona

A mafia suspect on the list of 100 most wanted fugitives in Italy has been arrested in Barcelona, Italian police said today.

Mario Santafede, 55, a member of the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia, was picked up in a joint raid carried out by Italian and Spanish police on a flat in a residential area of the city.

Santafede, who is the object of an international arrest warrant, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in his absence for criminal association in connection with drug trafficking. He has been on the run since 2004.

Spanish police working in cooperation with their Italian counterparts have arrested a suspected leader of Italy’s Camorra crime syndicate, the Interior Ministry said Saturday.

Members of Spain’s elite special operations police moved in to detain Mario Santafede in the car park of a luxury apartment in the northeastern city of Barcelona on Friday evening, the ministry said in a statement.

Santafede, 55, is wanted by Italian authorities for suspected cocaine smuggling from Colombia and Ecuador to the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Italy, the ministry said.

The suspect, who is thought by investigators to have close links with other Naples-based criminals, is also wanted in connection with at least three murders, the ministry said.

Santafede, who was in possession of false Italian and British identity papers when arrested, had changed his appearance through exercise, the ministry said.

The suspect was expected to appear before a judge at the National Court in Madrid later Saturday prior to possible extradition to Italy, the ministry said.

Santafede is one several suspected Camorra leaders arrested in or near Barcelona in recent years. Police arrested Patrizio Bosti, who was on Italy’s list of 30 most-wanted criminals, while having dinner in Girona last month. Bosti, 49, had been on the run since 2005.

In February 2006, Raffaele Petrazzuolo was picked up in Barcelona and deported to Italy on suspicion of criminal activity and complicity with mob leaders.Also in 2006 a man identified only as Carmine R., 38, was detained in the seaside resort of Sitges, just outside Barcelona.

This story was found at: http://costadelcrime.blogspot.com/2008/09/mario-santafede-detained-in-car-park-of.html – 20 September 2008

Four of twenty suspected Russian mafia members arrested on Friday will remain in Spanish custody after questioning, according to the El Mundo newspaper. Sixteen others have yet to be quizzed, but Spanish law requires that they be charged within 48 hours of arrest.

The suspects are expected to face charges of arms smuggling, racketeering, money laundering and drug trafficking.

Police have frozen bank accounts containing a total of 12 million euros, as well as seizing 200,000 euros in cash, 23 luxury vehicles, a yacht, guns, as well as some art, including a Dali original.

According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, the suspects have been linked to one of the most prominent organised crime groups in the world. The police had been following the Russian criminal group for more than a year.

More than 190 Spanish law enforcement officers took part in the operation.

Four of the those arrested are alleged to be the heads of a Russian criminal organisation.

One of the detainees, Vitaly Izgilov, was first arrested in 2005 on charges of money laundering but was released conditionally. Once free, it is claimed, he created another organisation to launder money.

Russian mafia suspects await charges – TV-Novosti – June 14, 2008, 21:47 – http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/26202

Spanish police arrest Russian mafia suspects

A gaudy neo-classical mansion, Ferraris and Bentleys in the drive, a painting by Salvador Dalí on the wall and royalty for neighbours. Welcome to the world of Gennadios Petrov, the alleged Mr Big of the Russian mafia in Spain.

Petrov is said to head the Tambovskaya-Malyshevkaya gang from the sunny climes of Calvi, one of the most exclusive villages in Majorca. He counted among his neighbours Pilar de Borbón, the sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Accustomed to handing out tips of €500 (£393) and not looking at the price tag when buying designer jackets, Petrov lived surrounded by tight security. But the peace at his €20m mansion was rudely interrupted when the Spanish police came knocking on Friday.

In a major operation, codenamed Troika, 20 alleged members of the organised crime organisation said to have been led by Petrov were arrested in Majorca, Málaga, Alicante, Valencia and Madrid. Police seized 23 luxury cars including Bentleys and Ferraris and €200,000 in cash.

The Dalí painting, signed by the Surrealist master and dated 1949, was found at a luxury mansion in Valencia linked to Petrov. More than 100 bank accounts containing a reported €14m were also frozen.

Spain’s leading anti-terrorist judge, Baltasar Garzón, who tried to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, charged Petrov and 17 others with a variety of offences including money-laundering, murder, extortion, drug dealing, illicit association, falsification of documents and tax fraud. They will appear before a maximum security court in Madrid today.

The gang, said to be one of the most brutal in Russia, allegedly set up a web of front companies in Spain to launder millions in illegal property deals gained from criminal activities in Russia and the former Soviet states.

After the raids, which involved 300 police, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the interior minister, said: “This is the largest crackdown on organised crime in Europe.”

The operation was carried out with the help of German, US and Russian police.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Russian mafia has gained ground in Spain, exploiting lax property laws and limited police resources to launder millions in property deals through bogus firms and into tax havens such as Gibraltar. Petrov, who is in his 50s, arrived in Spain in the early 90s, and allegedly used cash from the former KGB and communist party to buy a luxury hotel in Majorca.

Operation Troika is the latest stage of an ongoing investigation into the Russian mafia in Spain, which began in 2005 with the arrest of 28 suspects.

Spanish police arrest Russian mafia suspects – Graham Keeley in Barcelona – The Guardian, Monday June 16, 2008 – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/16/spain.russia

More than 300 police participated in the swoops in Malaga on the southern Costa del Sol, Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante and the Balearic Islands.

The ring, which had been based in Spain since the early 1990s, was suspected of laundering money from criminal activities elsewhere, trafficking with arms, ordering killings and giving bribes.

The investigation discovered 500 bank accounts used by the ring.

The operation was staged with the support of foreign intelligence services.

Spain’s Costa del Sol is known for the presence of international criminals.

Spain detains several in swoops against Russian mafia – Posted : Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:21:01 GMT – Author : DPA – http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/212075,spain-detains-several-in-swoops-against-russian-mafia.html

Operation against the Russian mafia in Spain

Judge Baltasar Garzón launches operation against the Russian Mafia in Spain

The national police and Spanish Civil Guard have carried out an extensive operation against the Russian mafia in Spain. The High Court judge Baltasar Garzón has ordered 25 arrest warrants. So far at least 18 arrests have taken place, principally in the Costa del Sol, according to sources close to the investigation. Other arrests have also taken place in the provinces of Alicante, Malaga, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands. The operation is a result of a coordinated effort between the anticorruption prosecution unit and the High Court judge Baltasar Garzón.

More than 400 police and secret service agents have participated in the operation called Troika, which has also been helped by the collaboration of the intelligence services belonging to other countries such as Switzerland, Germany and the US.
It is believed that amongst other activities the Russian mafia in Spain laundered money, traded in arms and ordered assassinations. Garzón has discovered more than 500 bank accounts used by the network to launder millions of euros every year in tax havens.

Amongst the 18 people already arrested there are at least 4 leading members of the mafia who were resident in Alicante, Marbella and Nerja. The rapid action of the police meant that all those arrested had no time to react against the operation which was carried out in several locations simultaneously.

As well as the 25 arrest warrants several businesses and luxurious residences where the presumed leading members of the mafia and their families lived in locations such as Palma de Mallorca, Calviá, Nerja, Málaga and Madrid are currently being searched by the police.

The operation which has taken place today against the Russian mafia in Spain has taken years of careful planning. Several countries have already asked for some of those detained in operation Troika to be sent back so that they can be prosecuted there. In the next few hours Garzón will travel to different parts of the country where the arrests have taken place.

Operation against the Russian mafia in Spain – Friday, June 13, 2008 – http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/2008/06/operation-against-russian-mafia-in.html

Citing police sources, Spanish media reports said the man, identified only as Giuseppe F. was arrested by police in the city of Collado-Villalba, northwest of the capital, Madrid.

During the arrest, authorities seized two cars and 35,000 euros in cash, hidden inside one of the vehicles.

Police said the cocaine was being transported to Italy and it could have been broken down for 40,000 individual “fixes”.

Spanish police said the man belonged to a family from the southern Italian region of Calabria, with direct links to ‘Ndrangheta.

His partner, Gloria E.C.A. , a 47-year-old Colombian woman allegedly served as an intermediary and was in charge of making contacts in Colombia to bring the drugs to Spain.

Both were caught with the cocaine, hidden in a plastic bag inside a car they were driving.

Giuseppe F. reportedly transported the drugs to Italy, using different vehicles with hidden compartments to hide the cocaine packages.

Italy’s four main criminal organisations are the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra in Naples and the surrounding Campania region, the ‘Ndrangheta in the southern region of Calabria, and the Sacra Corona Unita in the southern Puglia region.

Mafia member arrested in Spain for drug trafficking – AKI – 29 May -http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.2207653956

A 45 year old British woman, named with the initials A.H., has been arrested in Benidorm on an international arrest warrant.

The arrest was carried out at a hotel in the town on the request of the Italian authorities who want to talk to the woman about her alleged connections to the Sicilian Mafia.

She is alleged to have carried out extortion, drug trafficking and even a killing for which she faces 24 years in an Italian prison.

She will appear before Instruction Court 3 in the National Court in Madrid shortly according to National Police sources in Alicante.

British woman arrested in Benidorm for alleged links to the Italian mafia – By h.b. – Apr 21, 2008 – 8:17 PM – http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_16175.shtml

Learco Chindamo’s father, a Mafia gangster known as the Acid Man, is in a Spanish jail awaiting trial for murdering his ex-girlfriend.

Massimo Giuseppe Chindamo was arrested last year after the brutal stabbing of the Venezuelan woman in Gran Canaria.

He went on the run and hid out for a week in a cave, but was eventually snared by police.

It also emerged yesterday that in the build-up to the Philip Lawrence murder trial in 1996, Massimo exchanged dozens of letters with his son from his own cell at the top-security Viterbo prison north of Rome.

At the time, Massimo was serving a 15-year sentence for throwing sulphuric acid into his estranged partner’s face in 1988 – the crime that earned him his gruesome nickname.

Interviewed in the prison, Massimo tried to take some perverse credit for how his son had turned into a murderer.

“He writes to me every week – we are very close,” he said. “He is my favourite son and always will be.

“He looks up to me and he respects me for being his father and teaching him so many things. Learco is like me – he has courage.”

The 55-year-old, who has numerous convictions for assault, extortion, possession of firearms and arson, fled to the Canary Islands after the acid attack.

In his absence, a Milanese court sentenced him to 15 years.

He was eventually arrested in 1991 and extradited to Italy, where he was jailed until 2005. That year he returned to the Canaries.

But in May 2006, he allegedly stabbed Maria Elena Pedraza in broad daylight in a jealous rage after she broke up with him.

He is said to have then dumped the bloodied murder weapon and hidden in caves for a week.

Acting on a tip-off, officers spent four hours on foot searching for his hideaway before finding him.

Despite being cornered, Massimo tried to escape but was arrested and will face trial towards the end of the year.

Last night his lawyer, Javier Hernandez, said: “I am aware Massimo has a son in the UK but he has never said anything about him being in jail.

“He has never denied killing Maria Elena, but I will be insisting there was no premeditation and that he did not intend to kill her the day she died.

“If he is found guilty, I’m envisaging a sentence of between 12 and 15 years.”

Chindamo’s Mafia gangster father awaiting trial for murder in Spain – By CHRISTIAN GYSIN – Last updated at 23:13pm on 21st August 2007 – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=476916&in_page_id=1770

Jaime Jimenez Arbe, who is being held in a high-security prison in Portugal where he was arrested at the end of last month, admits to being a “professional” bank robber, trained by the mafia in Marseille.

But he never killed anyone, said his lawyer in Spain, Jose Mariano Trillo-Figueroa, at a Madrid press conference.

Trillo-Figueroa said a fellow member of the Marseille mafia shot dead two policemen in Castejon in Navarre. That convinced Jimenez Arbe to pursue his life of crime alone.

Spanish police and media have dubbed him El Solitario, the Loner, because he appeared on CCTV footage, carrying out his raids alone, wearing various disguises.

The Loner will not name the mafia man for fear for his life, said Trillo-Figueroa.

The lawyer also said his client was innocent of the killing of a third police officer, stating another officer shot him accidentally.

Jimenez Arbe does not want to be extradited to Spain until his bad name is cleared.

He robbed banks in an attempt “to free the Spanish people” from the way banks robbed them, said Trillo-Figueroa.

Jimenez was first in trouble with the law at 16 for stealing from a music shop in Madrid and was sent to prison for nine months, an experience which heavily marked him.

From then on, he led a double life, keeping his crimes secret from even his three wives, one a British woman from Manchester, and his three children.

He worked in industrial refrigeration in Libya and Algeria, among other day jobs.

“Being caught is a therapy for me because it allows me to let out all the poison I have in me”, said The Loner to his lawyer in one of the three meetings they had in Portugal.

Spain’s public enemy no.1 denies murders – 9 August 2007 – http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=42743