The extradition to Italy of the 56-year-old boss of the ‘Ndrangheta Rocco Morabito, considered one of the most important international drug traffickers in the world, has been suspended in Brazil due to the existence of an arrest warrant against him presented in Sao Paulo .
‘Ndrangheta, Rocco Morabito arrested in Brazil: he was the number 2 of Italian fugitives after Messina Denaro
by Alessia Candito
According to the weekly Veja, the Ministry of Justice has informed the Federal Supreme Court (Stf) that it has suspended Morabito’s extradition for the possible opening of a proceeding against him by the Brazilian justice.
On 24 June the Supreme Court had rejected the latest appeal by Morabito’s lawyers and the judge of the highest court, Carmen Lúcia, had ordered the extradition to Italy within a month.
The Brazilian Undersecretary of Justice, José Vicente Santini, had consequently initially authorized on behalf of the federal government the handover of the boss to the Italian authorities, having received no reports of pending lawsuits against him.
But on 27 June the federal police instead communicated to the Ministry of Justice the presence of a provisional arrest warrant against Morabito in the State of Sao Paulo and this prompted Santini to block the extradition process.