Uruguayan prison chief quits after Italian mobster escapes
Posted June 25, 2019 5:27 pm.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — The director of Uruguay’s prison system has resigned following the escape of a top Italian organized crime boss from the jail where he was being held while awaiting extradition to Italy.
The government announced Tuesday that it had accepted Alberto Gadea’s resignation.
Rocco Morabito escaped from a Montevideo jail with three other inmates in the early hours of Monday.
Morabito has been on the run from Italy since 1994 and has been sentenced there to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking. He was arrested in 2017 in Uruguay.
Italian prosecutors say he played a large role in trafficking operations between South America and Milan.
Morabito has also been described as a key figure in the Calabria-based ‘Ndrangheta mob, one of the world’s biggest movers of cocaine.
The Associated Press
