Italian authorities arreste the top boss of Naples crime syndicate on Saturday to board a flight to Spain.
Luciana Lamorgese, Minister of Internal Affairs, praised the arrest of 70-year-old Maria Licciardi.
Then, the Carabinieri unit arrested Licciardi under orders from Naples prosecutors.
The paramilitary Carabinieri’s special operations force, who executed the arrest, didn’t
immediately comment.
However, the Carabinieri media office stated that Licciardi was caught from the Ciampino
airport in Rome as she checked for a flight to Spain via the Italian news agency ANSA.
As a result, Investigators claim that Licciardi performed extortion rackets as the head of the Licciardi Camorra criminal organization.
“She didn’t bat an eyelash when the officers blocked her and served the warrant signed by
the Naples prosecutors’ office,” ANSA said.
As she drove a car near Naples, the authoroties stopped and arrested Licciardi in 2001.
Licciardi is among one of Italy’s top-30 wanted list.
Later, authorities released her from jail in 2009 after serving her time for charges of mafia-related crimes.
Due to her small physique, she got the nickname ‘a piccirella, “a little one” among the mobs.
According to prosecutors, Licciardi won in a long-term blood battle between
alliances of families that buried corpses in Naples almost daily earlier this century.
In an interview with AP in 2009, Naples prosecutors described Licciardi as “Madrina” or
“Godmother” of the Camorra syndicate.
Licciardi’s brother was a boss in the family, and she, along with bosses of other families, made decisions for the criminal family, prosecutors said.
The Camorra Syndicate based in Naples is one of Italy’s prominent crime organizations.
The syndicate’s main source of money primarily depends on blackmail and extortion of
locals, drug trafficking and infiltration of public contracts.
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