Dangerous fugitive finally caught after 11 years after police spot football photo
Some criminals manage to last for years on the run, only for one fatal mistake to prove their undoing.
This is how it went for Vincenzo La Porta, an Italian criminal who went on the run for more than a decade before he was finally captured. Despite evading authorities for some 11 years, he made a critical mistake which ultimately led to his capture.
Police in Italy had been monitoring his activities for months, but they needed him to make a mistake to reveal his whereabouts to them so they could swoop in and arrest him.
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Luckily for them, though not so much for La Porta, he gave them just such an opportunity.
It's no secret that Italy loves football. The game is overwhelmingly popular, and La Porta was no exception to this.
In the end, he was finally arrested after he was spotted in a Greek restaurant watching his home team playing a match.
His favourite team, Napoli, had just won the Serie A league championship. However, officers spotted the fugitive among fans celebrating the victory. They headed to the Greek island where the restaurant was located to tail him.
In the end they managed to block him from travelling down a street on a scooter, and he was finally arrested after 11 years on the run.
As per Sky News, in a statement local police said: "Betraying him was his passion for soccer and for the Napoli team. With the championship victory, La Porta couldn't resist celebrating."
La Porta had been convicted in his absence of tax offences. He is also believed to have connections to the Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra.
The Camorra has proven extremely difficult for Italian authorities to deal with. Rather than the hierarchical system of Cosa Nostra with one person running the whole operation, it has been established that the Camorra has a much more egalitarian structure. This means that no one person could compromise the entire organisation, making it much more difficult to deal with.
La Porta is currently being held by Greek authorities, and Italy is seeking an extradition for him.
His lawyer Athanassios Giannakouris said: "He was sentenced long ago for tax offences.
"He has started a new family in Greece ... he has a nine-year-old boy and is working as a cook to get by. He suffers from heart ailments. If he's extradited, he and his family will be ruined."
La Porta had reportedly been working as a chef at the restaurant.
Kit Roberts