It’s not all photo sharing, commenting, and poking these days on Facebook: Italian authorities are using the social network to track down criminals. (And Facebook did away with poking ages ago.)
Indeed, the Sicilian mafia boss arrested March 30 at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport was monitored by Italian Carabinieri agents who followed his and his family’s Facebook postings.
Vito Roberto Palazzolo fled from Italy to South Africa years ago when he was convicted of money laundering and had been living as a wealthy businessman under the name Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko in his new country. Thai police arrested the alleged mobster arriving at Bangkok’s airport on Friday after a tip off from Sicilian carabinieri.
South Africa had refused requests by Italy to extradite the mobster.
Col. Chartchai Eimsaeng, deputy investigation chief of Thailand’s immigration police, said that Thailand would legally send Palazzolo back to Italy even though the two country’s do not have an extradition treaty,the AP reported. The country’s do have a criminal cooperation agreement, he said.
Palazzolo was convicted in 2006 of a nine-year sentence by Italy’s highest court for his alleged involvement in the “Pizza Connection” case. His conviction was upheld in 2009, when he fled Italy.
The “Pizza Connection” case involved a USD1.6 billion heroin and cocaine smuggling operation by the Italian mafia that used New York pizzerias as fronts. Palazzolo allegedly helped mobsters involved in the racket launder money while he was a banker in Switzerland.
We suppose the moral of the story here is: Don’t post your travel plans on Facebook if you’re an exiled criminal fleeing jail time in your home country?
