GOOGLE MAPS ENABLED COPS TO CATCH ITALIAN MAFIA FUGITIVE

Italian Mafia fugitive on run for 20 years caught after being spotted on Google Maps 

 

By Harry Pettit

 

The Sun

January 5, 2022

 

 

The Google Street View image showing convicted murderer Gioacchino Gammino outside of his fruit and vegetable store in Spain

 

Police have caught an Italian mafia henchman after spotting the fugitive on Google Maps.

According to the Telegraph, Gioacchino Gammino was convicted of murder and then escaped from prison 20 years ago before ending up in Spain.

He thought he’d escaped the clutches of detectives after nearly two decades on the run – but eagle-eyed cops were able to track him down.

Gammino, 60, was living the quiet life in Spain, where he had set up a fruit and vegetable shop under a false name, the Telegraph reports.

However, detectives were hot on the trail and managed to confirm his whereabouts using images on Google Maps.

A snap of the criminal available on the tool’s Street View feature shows him outside a grocery shop in the town of Galapagar north of Madrid.

The store is named El Huerto de Manu – Manu’s Garden. Since moving to Spain, Gammino had changed his name to Manuel.

 

The 60-year-old had set up the produce shop under a false name

 

Detectives’ suspicions that the man in the image was Gammino grew when they investigated a nearby restaurant called Manu’s Kitchen.

Photos on its official Facebook page showed the fugitive dressed in chef’s whites. They were able to identify him by a distinctive scar on his chain.

A speciality on the menu was listed as “Cena Siciliana” – Sicilian supper.

Gammino was arrested on December 17 but his capture has only now come to light.

He was baffled that he’d been found, reportedly telling his captors: “I haven’t even phoned my family for the last 10 years.”

The crook will be taken back to Italy where he will serve a life sentence for murder.

Gammino was part of a mafia clan from Agrigento in Sicily and has been convicted of a range of crimes, including murder and drug trafficking.

 

Gammino was arrested on December 17 and was baffled at how police tracked him down

 

He was listed by the Italian interior ministry as one of the country’s most wanted fugitives.

The crook escaped prison in Rome in 2002 and disappeared without a trace. His arrest is the result of a two-year operation carried out by Italian detectives.