Mafia boss Marco Raduano recaptured after jail break

Marco Raduano, 41, boss of the Gargano Mafia in the southern Italian region of Puglia, was caught outside a luxury restaurant in Bastia, Corsica. He was reeled in by the same anti-mafia unit that captured Matteo Messina Denaro.

Budget cuts meant 50 guards were watching 180 prisoners, many of whom are some of Italy’s most notorious mafiosi.

Marco Raduano escaped from the Badu’e Carros top security prison in Sardinia. He went unnoticed for two hours because no one was watching security footage. Cameras captured the boss of the Sacra Corona Unita Mafia clan scaling down a stone wall using a rope of bedsheets before running off.

Raduano was arrested in 2018 and jailed for 18 years for cocaine trafficking. He is facing murder charges. The crime lord presides over a notoriously violent criminal clan that’s known for shattering its victims’ skulls with shotgun blasts to deprive families of open-casket funerals. The Sacra Corona Unita consists of about 50 clans with 2,000 members and specializes in extortion, smuggling cigarettes, drugs, and people.

The Sacra Corona Unita collects payoffs from other criminal groups for landing rights on the coast of Italy.