NewsMafia boss discovered on Google Maps: He hid for...

Mafia boss discovered on Google Maps: He hid for almost 20 years

Mafia boss Gioacchino Gammino has been on the run from the Italian judiciary for around 20 years. Thanks to Google Maps, it is captured near Madrid.

Madrid / Kassel – A mafioso sentenced to life imprisonment was caught in Spain in December 2021 after fleeing for around two decades. The investigators owe the success of the search to the online map service Google Maps. Several Italian media report on it.

Accordingly, Italian investigators recognized the notorious criminal Gioacchino Gammino by chance in a photo on Google Maps. The 61-year-old was once the boss of the Stidda, a split from the Cosa Nostra operating in Sicily.

Mafia boss tracked down near Madrid: Google Maps leads Italian authorities to Gammino

A photo from a report in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica shows two men in front of the vegetable shop “El huerto de Manu” in Galapagar, a small town northwest of Madrid. Due to a striking scar on his chin, the Sicilian investigators recognized the former Mafia boss on the Google Maps photo. Together with the Spanish authorities, the police officers from Palermo then managed to track down Gammino and arrest him on December 17th.

Among other things, the 61-year-old was involved on August 29, 1989, when a passer-by was murdered in the Sicilian town of Campobello di Licata. The perpetrators mistakenly believed that the man belonged to a rival Mafia clan. At the time, public prosecutor Giovanni Falcone was also involved in the investigation against the Stidda. Only a few years later, in May 1992, he was murdered with a car bomb on behalf of the Cosa Nostra.

Mafia boss puzzled when arrested after finding Google Maps: “How could you find me?”

After being convicted, Gammino managed to escape to Spain in 1998, but was arrested again in Barcelona a few weeks later. After years of imprisonment in Italy, he managed to escape a second time when he mingled with the extras during a film shoot on June 26, 2002 and thus left the maximum security prison Rebibbia in Rome.

“How could you find me? I haven’t spoken to my family on the phone for ten years, ”Gammino asked the police officers when he was arrested in Galapagar. He offered no resistance. If the investigators hadn’t come across the photo on Google Maps, the mafioso might still be at large.

Because even if the Italian authorities suspected Gammino in Spain, his trace was quickly lost after his escape. Under the name Manuel, the 61-year-old tried, among other things, as a cook in his restaurant called “La cocina de Manu”. Gammino is expected to be extradited to Italy shortly and begin his custody – then probably for the last time.

In a curious way, the police in Lower Saxony also came across a wanted man * because he did not show up for his rehab appointment. (Nail Akkoyun) * hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

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