Thailand okays mafia banker's extradition: prosecutor

[webfact]

Thailand okays mafia banker's extradition: prosecutor

ROME, December 16, 2013 (AFP) - A businessman convicted of laundering money for the Sicilian Mafia will be extradited to Italy from Thailand where he was arrested in 2012 after many years on the run, an Italian prosecutor said on Sunday.

Vito Palazzolo had appealed against a previous extradition order from a Thai court in December 2012 after his detention in March of that year.

"It has been a very long procedure," Leonardo Agueci, the deputy chief prosecutor in Palermo in Sicily, was quoted by Italian media as saying.

Sicilian-born Palazzolo previously worked as a banker in Switzerland and was convicted in the 1980s of laundering mafia revenues from drug trafficking in an operation named the "Pizza Connection".

He served three years in prison for the crime.

A few years after his release, the lead prosecutor in the case was assassinated with a roadside bomb that also killed his wife and three bodyguards.

Palazzolo is accused of being the "treasurer" for the last two godfathers of the Cosa Nostra who are now in jail -- Bernardo Provenzano and Toto Riina, who imposed a reign of terror in the 1980s and 1990s.

An Italian court sentenced him in absentia to nine years in jail in 2009. He had been living in South Africa under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko before travelling to Thailand.

When he was sentenced, 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 -- which declined to extradite him -- Palazzolo was a major businessman with interests in mineral water, security and ostrich farming.

Investigators believe he also owns a diamond cutting business and a hunting ground popular with the rich and famous, and is an investor in a company in Angola specialising in precious stones.


-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-12-16

[phitsanulokjohn]

Thailand needs to put it's own house in order first,regarding Thai mafia activities,before worrying about other countries mafia.

[MMarlow]

Thailand needs to put it's own house in order first,regarding Thai mafia activities,before worrying about other countries mafia.

So Thailand should just ignore extradition requests on the grounds that It's own systems aren't perfect? That makes sense.

[Emdog]

Speaking of mafia, has Thailand requested Singapore send back boy/man Red Bull heir that killed the cop and skipped the country? Just kidding.... of course not!

[Ulic]

This case has been going on for some time. Should have stayed in RSA if he did did not

want to be extradited. Now he will get his many days in court.

[siampolee]

Investigators believe he also owns a diamond cutting business and a hunting ground popular with the rich and famous, and is an investor in a company in Angola specialising in precious stones.

Coincidence perhaps

But isn't there a prominent political figure albeit in the background along with a prominent lady connected to said politicians party who both it is stated have interests in Angolan Diamond Mines etc?

One is led to wonder whether there might be a business link with certain privileges extended to fellow investors.

[falangadang]

I thought all bankers were mafioso money launderers and cheats.

For a moment I thought the article was going to tell some amazing story of all the bankers being rounded up and put on a bus to the airport!

[Nemesis7]

Interesting

[Chao Lao Beach]

Speaking of mafia, has Thailand requested Singapore send back boy/man Red Bull heir that killed the cop and skipped the country? Just kidding.... of course not!

Does ASEAN (or will) have free movement for extradition treaties as well? Is that part of the common ASEAN?