Lebanon on Thursday handed over a major drug trafficker to Italian authorities, a Lebanese judicial source told French news agency AFP. The man was the subject of an Interpol red notice.
Bartolo Bruzzaniti, a suspected member of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia involved in “international cocaine smuggling operations” between Europe and Africa, was handed over by the Lebanese Sûreté Générale to an Italian security delegation, which took him by private plane to Rome, the source added.
He had been arrested on 1 July in a restaurant in Jounieh, north of Beirut, after his visa to Lebanon expired.
Bruzzaniti, 48, had been wanted since October 2022 by the Italian authorities in connection with a major operation involving the seizure of more than four tonnes of cocaine, worth around €800 million, according to Italian media.
The fugitive was “wanted by the Italian authorities on the basis of a red notice (from Interpol) issued on 30 October 2022,” the judicial source said. “The extradition process is the result of more than two weeks of negotiations between the two countries,” it said.
On Tuesday, a Lebanese judge had issued an extradition warrant for Bruzzaniti after approval by the Lebanese Minister of Justice.
This is the 76th arrest of a member of the ‘Ndrangheta, Interpol said on Twitter, renamed “X”, stating that the capture of the fugitive was made possible thanks to the I-can (Interpol Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta) project, in which 13 countries are involved.
