A New York mob contract killer who escaped federal custody has been caught in Florida after an extensive manhunt.
The US Marshals service announced Dominic Taddeo, 64, was arrested without incident around 11am on Monday by its own officials and those from the Florida Caribbean regional fugitive task Force in Hialeah area in the Miami-Dade County, Florida.
The arrest came after a week of an extensive manhunt when the Mafia hitman did not return to the facility after an approved medical appointment on 28 March, the US Marshals service said.
He was placed on escape status by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“The tenacious work of the involved deputy marshals and the cooperation between our offices resulted in the quick capture of Mr Taddeo,” US Marshal Bill Berger said in a statement on Monday.
Officials said Taddeo was transferred to a halfway house near Orlando from a medium-security prison in Sumter County, Florida in February. He was scheduled to be there until February 2023, the statement said.
Taddeo was just a year away from his expected release date from several prison sentences after a string of convictions when he escaped, according to the service.
He was convicted on federal racketeering charges from 1990-92 and pleaded guilty to multiple other cases involving weapons offences, drugs and enterprise corruption, which included the killing of three men on behalf of the La Cosa Nostra organised crime family based out of Rochester, upstate New York.
He also pleaded guilty for twice attempting to fatally shoot a mob leader and plotting to kill another mob figure, according to the archives of the local Rochester newspaper Democrat and Chronicle.
This was not the first time the mob hitman disappeared. He had also gone missing in 1987 after being released on bail while facing federal firearms charges.
Taddeo had earlier filed a motion for compassionate release in December 2020, citing the dangers the Covid pandemic posed to his health. The motion was denied.
