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Wanted Mafia Boss Arrested In Thailand


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Posted

Wanted mafia boss arrested in Thailand

ROME, March 31, 2012 (AFP) - Thai police have arrested a wanted Italian mafia boss after he flew to Bangkok airport, Italian media said Saturday.

Vito Roberto Palazzolo, from Terrasini near the Sicilian capital Palermo and considered to be a leading member of the Cosa Nostra Sicilian mafia for whom he laundered money, was arrested on Friday.

He was sentenced in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 to nine years in jail for association with the mafia and had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko.

South African authorities had declined to extradite the 64-year-old.

Investigators tracked him down after monitoring his Facebook profile and that of his friends and family.

Italian media reported that Thailand had agreed to his extradition to Italy but that his lawyers said he was a South African national, even though he had assumed it under another identity.

When he was first sentenced in 2006, public prosecutors in Palermo said Palazzolo was "one of the most important Cosa Nostra figures in 20 years, notably because of his key role between business and the mafia".

In South Africa he is seen as a major business leader with interests in mineral water, security and ostrich farming.

Investigators believe he is also the owner of a hunting ground popular with the rich and famous, and an investor in a company in Angola that specialising in precious stones.

He was also said to be the owner of a diamond cutting business.

afplogo.jpg

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2012-03-31

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Posted

I agree on most of your points.

Italian mafia boss comes to Thailand for rest.

I could see him telling the officer in chathe, "I make you an offer you cannot refuse. I only authors once."

Posted

The mafia capo will likely be "detained" and placed in a cell near Rakesh Saxena. Saxena will subsequently be found dead from unknown causes. This is called Thai outsourcing. How else would the Thais have figured out the true identity of Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko? they outsourced the Saxena job to the mafia and the mafia gave instructions that their man would be arriving in Bangkok.

Posted (edited)

If he was going to offer a bribe to be set free it would already have happened. He's arrested and so going back to Italy. No amount of money will get him out of this. Just like that Russian guy, some arrests are too high-profile to have the people walk free.

Edited by w11guy
Posted

"Investigators tracked him down after monitoring his Facebook profile and that of his friends and family" .

Someone wanted by inter pol is dumb enough to be on facebook! That's amazing!

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Posted

I agree this is likely too high-profile for him to buy his way out, and most likely international agents were on the ground monitoring the initial approach and arrest from the beginning, because boy this guy should have been able to buy his way out if anyone can.

I imagine it also cost the Italians a bit to ensure cooperation, but not that much.

I doubt this guy would have been "competing" with the local mafias/BiB, they're usually smart enough to suss out the local power structures and cooperate. But someone this serious would have been a real wild card for the locals, probably a bit too nervous-making for them to be willing to deal with.

So good job to all concerned, the world is a little better off. . .

Posted
South African authorities had declined to extradite him.

Anyone knows why?

some country 's does not extradite their subjects........'as he COULD (!) be a south African ....

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