Top Mob Fugitive Captured In Poland

One of Italy’s most wanted organized crime suspects was captured in Poland on Tuesday, 11 years after he escaped out a hospital window using a rope of sheets, Italian news reports said.

Pasquale Scotti, considered one of the top lieutenants in the dominant clan among Naple’s Camorra crime families, was arrested by Polish police near the Czech border, the reports said.

Scotti’s arrest in Poland appeared to support investigators’ beliefs that strong ties exist between Italian crime syndicates and similar networks in the former Soviet bloc.

Scotti, 37, reputed to be a top aide to Naples crime boss Raffaele Cutolo, allegedly helped the mob launder some of its millions of dollars in profits from drug and arms trafficking, extortion and other rackets.