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The escape of Roberto Mazzarella, head of the eponymous clan that controls Naples, ended in a luxury resort in Vietri sul Mare, in the Salerno area. Carabinieri on Friday night arrested the boss, who had been wanted since 28 January 2025, after having escaped a European arrest warrant for murder aggravated by mafia-related offences issued by the Court of Naples.
Mazzarella, 48, was fourth on the Ministry of the Interior’s list of the most dangerous fugitives (source in Italian). With this capture, the list of Italy’s so-called superlatitantes is reduced to three names: Attilio Cubeddu, Giovanni Motisi and Renato Cinquegranella.
At the time of his arrest by the Carabinieri of the Nucleo Investigativo of Naples, Mazzarella was with his family in a villa on the Amalfi Coast, where he had provided false information to celebrate Easter with his loved ones, at the price of a thousand euros a day.
The fugitive did not resist during the operations, which found about 20 thousand euro in cash, three valuable watches, mobile phones and forged identity documents, as well as handwritten notes on which the clan’s accounts are being investigated.
Who is the boss Roberto Mazzarella
The investigation that led to the arrest warrant concerns a grisly event that took place twenty-four years ago. Roberto Mazzarella is believed to be the instigator and executor of the murder of Antonio Maione, killed in 2000 in San Giovanni a Teduccio. The victim, not involved in camorristic activities, was the brother of the killer of the boss’s father, Salvatore Mazzarella, who was killed in 1995.
The Mazzarella family controls much of the smuggling and drug trafficking in Naples and its province, of which it shares control with the so-called Secondigliano Alliance, and the laundering of proceeds via Milan and northern Italy.
The clan, considered one of the most powerful in the Camorra, was founded by the Zaza family in the 1940s and then passed under the control of the Mazzarella, after a marriage between members of the two families. For a couple of decades, it has been fighting a feud with the Rinaldi family, affiliated to the Secondigliano bosses, including the 1995 and 2000 murders.
Institutional leaders and lawmakers welcomed the successful operation. The president of the Anti-Mafia Commission, Chiara Colosimo, declared on X: ”I express enormous satisfaction for the brilliant operation carried out”. While Pina Picierno, a vice-president of the European Parliament, stressed the importance of the result: ”A great victory for the State and a clear signal in the fight against mafias”.
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