Friday, November 7, 2008

Italian Police Nab Suspected Mobster During Liposuction Surgery

ROME — Soon after the alleged mobster woke up in a private Italian clinic following liposuction surgery, he discovered he had lost a lot more than weight.

After a year on the run, Domenico Magnoli, 27, finally lost his liberty when he discovered the well-wishers surrounding his bed were police officers, who promptly arrested him, investigators and health officials said Friday.

The plainclothes officers posed as visitors and carried flowers and boxes of chocolates to greet Magnoli after an operation to remove fat from his thighs and stomach late Thursday, Sky TG24 TV reported.

Magnoli had just woken when he was arrested, said Vincenzo Greco, health director of the private La Madonnina clinic, at Calabria, southern Italy. Greco confirmed that officers did not wear their police uniforms.

Paramilitary Carabinieri police in Cosenza said that Magnoli was arrested on a French warrant for alleged drug trafficking. Police said Magnoli, born in Cannes, has links to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta syndicate. He had been a fugitive for about a year.

The 'ndrangheta is a criminal organization based in Calabria which operates cocaine and other drug trafficking rings between South America and Western Europe, and which has outstripped the Sicilian Mafia in power, prosecutors say.

Greco said Magnoli had liposuction six months earlier with the same surgeon at another clinic.

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