Italian mafia bosses to be freed as prison officer reveals virus ‘trick’

Some of Italy’s most notorious mobsters, with alleged links to Aussie crime figures, are being released from jail due to COVID-19. And some have devised a trick to ensure they get out of jail.

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Dozens of mafia bosses could be released from prisons across Italy due to the risk of COVID-19 infection.

Italian judges have already set free at least three ageing mobsters, placing them under house arrest.

Vincenzino Iannazzo, 65, and Rocco Santo Filippone, 72, both alleged Ndrangheta bosses, have been released in recent weeks due to underlying health conditions.

Police officers stop cars at the Melegnano highway barrier entrance, near Milan. Picture: AP

The Ndrangheta, which grew out of Calabria in Italy’s south, has become one of the strongest organised criminal groups in the world, with estimates of total wealth of more than 150 billion euros ($242 billion).

A News Corp investigation last December revealed the alleged links between Ndrangheta mobsters and Melbourne crime figures.

A judge in Milan ordered the release of one of the most influential bosses of Cosa Nostra, Francesco Bonura, 78, who was serving a 23-year sentence, news magazine L’Espresso reported.

Under the terms of his house arrest, mobster Bonura will be allowed movement for medical appointments.

Leo Beneduci, secretary-general of Osapp, Italy’s largest prison police officers’ union, said the release of the prisoners was a “very alarming situation”.

According to media reports, detainees have been embracing each other in an effort to increase the possibility of contracting the virus so they can be released from prison.

Some of Italy’s most notorious mobsters could soon walk free. Picture: Getty Images

Claudio Fava, the president of Sicily’s antimafia commission, told The Guardian he feared mafia bosses could leverage the coronavirus crisis to secure their release.

Lirio Abbate, journalist and national editor of L’Espresso, who currently lives under police protection after receiving numerous death threats from the mafia.

“The risk is that we’ll find the mafia virus on the streets alongside COVID-19,” he told The Guardian. “It would be a double pandemic that we mustn’t allow to happen.”

Originally published as Italian mafia bosses to be freed as prison officer reveals virus ‘trick’