Italian police have captured a top mafia fugitive who had been on the run for nearly 20 years with the help of the Google Maps app, an investigator told Reuters on Wednesday.
After a two-year investigation, Gioacchino Gammino, 61, was located in Galapagar, Spain, where he was living under a false name. The city is close to the capital Madrid.
A Google Maps Street View image showing a man resembling him in front of a greengrocer was key to triggering a deeper investigation.
“The frame helped us to confirm the investigation that we were developing in a traditional way,” said Nicola Altiero, deputy director of the Italian anti-mafia police unit (DIA).
Gammino, a member of a Sicilian mafia group nicknamed Stidda, had escaped from Rome’s Rebibbia prison in 2002 and in 2003 had been sentenced to life in prison for a murder committed several years earlier.
Altiero said that Gammino is currently in custody in Spain and they hope to bring him back to Italy at the end of February. Reuters was unable to reach a representative for Gammino for comment.
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