Fugitive caught after being seen in photo celebrating football win

News Express |6th Aug 2023 | 119
Fugitive caught after being seen in photo celebrating football win




One of Italys most dangerous fugitives has been caught in Greece after a photo of him cheering on his football team gave away his whereabouts.

Vincenzo La Porta, 60, is thought to have close ties to the Camorra organised crime gang in Naples.

He has been on the run for 11 years “ but earlier this year was spotted in a photo of fans celebrating in Greece.

The Naples Carabinieri police said: What betrayed him was his passion for football and for the Napoli.

Officers said the photos were taken after Napoli won its first Italian championship in over three decades earlier this year.

With the championship victory, La Porta couldnt resist celebrating, police said.

La Porta has already been convicted in absentia in Italy for criminal association, tax evasion and fraud.

Police finally arrested him on Friday while he was riding his moped on the Greek island of Corfu and he is now currently in a jail awaiting extradition to Italy.

If he is extradited to Italy, he is due serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months.

La Portas lawyer told AP news agency: 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 hes extradited, he and his family will be ruined.

The authorities were relentless in their pursuit of La Porta, tracking his financial and online movements closely and waited for him to make a misstep.

Back in May, La Porta could not contain his excitement when Napoli won its first Serie A title after 33 years.

The police spotted him in a photo outside a Corfu restaurant among Napoli fans donning a baseball cap and waving the teams sky blue and white colours.

The Investigators knew they had their man and followed him to Greece.

With a little help from their Greek colleagues, they arrested him on Friday, the Greek police said.

In January, this year, an Italian mafia boss who was on the run for decades was arrested after a Google Maps sighting. (BBC: Text, Excluding Headline)




Comments

Post Comment

Monday, October 6, 2025 9:15 PM
ADVERTISEMENT

Follow us on

GOCOP Accredited Member

GOCOP Accredited member
logo

NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.

Contact

Adetoun Close, Off College Road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos State.
+234(0)8098020976, 07013416146, 08066020976
info@newsexpressngr.com

Find us on

Facebook
Twitter

Copyright NewsExpress Nigeria 2025