Camorra drug trafficker hands over Dubai island

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 27 - Camorra drug trafficker Raffaele Imperiale has handed over to the Italian authorities an island he owns in an arcipelago off the coast of Dubai, judicial sources said on Monday.
    The announcement came during the trial in Naples involving some 20 defendants, including the notorious international drug trafficker turned state witness who was arrested in the United Arab Emirate city in August 2021 after five years on the run and extradited to Italy the following March.
    Imperiale, 49, had been on the run since 2016 and was living high on the hog in Dubai and spending €400,000 a month to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
    Co-defendants in the accelerated trial procedure before a preliminary hearing judge include business partner Bruno Carbone, accountant Corrado Genovese, logistician Daniele Ursini and a number of collaborators and employees, are also charged.
    Imperiale, who begun his criminal career from a coffeeshop in Amsterdam, is believed to have been at the head of an alleged super drug cartel along with former Dutch most wanted criminal Ridouan Taghi, Irish reputed gang boss Daniel Kinahan and Bosnian drug trafficker Edin Gačanin.
    The group was observed having meetings in the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, the base of the alleged cartel in 2017.
    The Italian authorities regard this as one of the world's fifty largest drug cartels, with a virtual monopoly on Peruvian cocaine. (ANSA).