BOGOTÁ, Colombia (BN24) — Colombian authorities announced Friday the arrest of an alleged senior figure in the Italian ’ndrangheta mafia, accused of orchestrating large-scale cocaine shipments and managing smuggling routes that funneled drugs from South America to Europe.
Police identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, an Italian national known by the alias “Peppe,” who was wanted on an Interpol red notice requesting his detention in nearly 200 countries.
Palermo was captured on the street in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, during a coordinated international operation involving Colombian police, Italian and British authorities, and Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.
In a statement posted on social media, Colombian police chief Carlos Fernando Triana said Palermo was considered part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ’ndrangheta, a powerful and notoriously secretive criminal organization based in the southern Italian region of Calabria.
The ’ndrangheta has become one of the most dominant players in the European cocaine trade, building extensive networks in Latin America to secure supplies of the drug.
According to Triana, Palermo “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and overland routes used to transport the narcotics to European markets.”
The United Nations reported that illegal global cocaine production surged to a record 3,708 metric tons in 2023—an increase of nearly 34% compared to the previous year—driven largely by the rapid expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia.
Authorities did not immediately provide details on whether Palermo would be extradited to Italy or face charges in Colombia.
