Just days after Italy’s justice minister congratulated the United Arab Emirates for its help in his arrest and extradition to Italy this week, a Syrian group is now asserting that one of Europe’s most wanted drug traffickers was captured in March.
Uncertainty persisted regarding Bruno Carbone’s arrest, which was connected to the Naples-based Camorra crime family. Since his 2003 conviction in absentia for narcotics trafficking and affiliation with a criminal organization, Carbone, 45, has been on the run. He received a 20-year prison term.
He was named by Europol as the point of contact for obtaining significant amounts of cocaine for the Camorra, primarily from Spain, and it was shown that he was active in two narcotics-trafficking organizations.
Carlo Nordio, the justice minister for Italy, thanked his UAE counterpart for helping to arrest a statement he released on Tuesday. That day, Carbone touched down in Italy.
A video statement released on Wednesday by a Syrian group affiliated with a jihadist group, alleging that Carbone had been seized in the Syrian province of Idlib and “given over to his nation of origin,” cast doubt on the course of events.
The so-called Syrian Salvation Government of the Al Qaeda-affiliated organization Hayat Tharir al-Sham, which oversees daily operations in Idlib, claimed to have apprehended Carbone in March as he tried to enter a zone under the authority of the Syrian government.
The official stated that after “collecting evidence and information, we started working on the procedure of giving him over to the government of his origin country.”
Carbone’s arrival from Dubai and the fact that he was arrested right away in Rome were both confirmed by Italian Finance Police Lt. Col. Danilo Toma, head of the special investigation group against criminal organizations in Naples. He didn’t want to go into more detail.