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| Claudio D'Este |
He escaped in 1999, and was a fugitive in Zagreb, where he was running under another name. «It's me», he acknowledged to Croatian agents. He will have to serve 10 years, he has 72. Mastelloni: «He has polluted the health of entire generations»
He had lost trace in 1999, when escaped the prison to not come back. Not even when justice presented to him yet another account of various convictions that became definitive nailed him for over 10 years to serve, according to Corriere Della Sera.The capture
Claudio D'Este had no doubts: many greetings. They found him gray-haired and seventy-two years old on the streets of Zagreb, Croatia, where he had escaped. It happened on the last day of the year, for him ruined because the police of the Croatian capital, on the indication of the Flying Squad of Venice and the Central Operations Service, captured him by bringing him back behind the bars. There was in fact an European arrest warrant issued by the Anti-Mafia Office of Trieste.
The "career"
D'Este has a criminal career behind him that saw him at the top of the Mount of del Brenta. Felice Maniero had assigned to him the task of managing the entire traffic of drugs. No robbery, no seizure, no homicide. D'Este, who everyone called him Moro, managed almost exclusively the drug market coming from abroad. A river of cocaine and heroin that brought money to palate in the coffers of Mala, especially in the eighties.
The clan of the 'Mestrini'
He was part of the so-called "clan of the Mestrini" and moved mainly in the Venetian, where he was the undisputed head of the traffic. He was arrested for the first time in 1976, then in 1991 and also in 1997. Between one detention and another, in addition to drug trafficking, he was also responsible for the management of a casino in Croatia, where the Maniero band had many connections. What D'Este evidently exploited when decided was time to disappear. In Croatia Moro has rebuilt a life with a new identity.
Family members
He kept the relationships with family members. So much so that in these days of celebration they had met him in Zagreb. An encounter that helped the capture.
"A criminal has been arrested who has polluted the health of entire generations with his drug trafficking," commented Carlo Mastelloni, the Trieste prosecutor.
D'Este is now in the Zagreb prison, awaiting extradition that is expected to take a long time, considering also the fact that the Croatian authorities have to assess any crimes committed in Croatia.