Mob boss Daniel Kinahan’s Italian mafia pal has reportedly been extradited back to Italy - six months after his Dubai arrest.
Raffaele Imperiale, who is number two on Italy’s most wanted list, was flown into Rome on Friday afternoon, according to local paper Il Post.
It comes after the recent intervention of the Italian Justice Minister last month, who personally flew to the United Arab Emirates to request the high-ranking Camorra member’s extradition - following his arrest on August 9, last year.
READ MORE: Another blow for Kinahan cartel as major ally jailed in Holland for running a 'murder' gang
Nicknamed 'Lelluccio', Imperiale attended Kinahan’s wedding at the plush Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai in 2017 - according to the DEA.
He is believed to be one of the leaders of a so-called ‘super cartel’ in Europe, of which Kinahan is a member.
Imperiale had been wanted by Italian authorities since 2016 to serve an eight-year sentence for drug trafficking.
His extradition to Italy after six months is a reminder to Kinahan that criminals living in the bolthole are not free from justice in Europe - and it may signal future trouble for him.
Imperiale’s dramatic arrest made international headlines last year when police released video footage of the moment they moved on him by a swimming pool in his luxury villa - and found him with a Russian passport.
The extradition application for the mobster stated that he was a member of Europe's so-called 'Super Cartel' along with Kinahan, Balkan mob boss Edin Gacanin and the caged Dutch mafia head Ridouan Taghi.
Prosecutors also claim Imperiale has ties with the leaders of Holland's notorious 'Mocro Maffia', led by Ridouan Taghi.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) documents sent to Dutch police identified Imperiale, Dutch mobster Taghi, Bosnian criminal Edin Gačanin, Richard 'El Rico' Riquelme Vega and Daniel Kinahan as the heads of the ‘super drug cartel'.
The alleged gang boss was arrested after a massive investigation involving Naples’s organised crime squad, public prosecutor’s office, financial crimes police, and other state authorities.
The DEA documents described the ‘super drugs cartel’ as one of the world’s fifty largest drug cartels, with a virtual monopoly of the Peruvian cocaine trade.
The documents said the ‘super drugs cartel’ controlled around a third of the cocaine trade into Europe – with the main point of access through Dutch ports.
In March of last year further evidence emerged of the links between the Kinahan cartel and Imperiale at the trial of Richard ‘El Rico’ Riquelme Vega in Amsterdam.
Judges heard briefly from the prosecution how Kinahan, was a “regular contact” of Riquelme’s and was in a video on a phone seized from him following his arrest and extradition to Holland from Chile in 2017
In June, Riquelme was sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of operating an assassination ring and laundering drug money.
His trial heard he had exchanged phone messages organising gangland murders with jailed drug boss Taghi.
Meanwhile, Taghi is facing accusations relating to six gangland murders in the Netherlands as well as drugs trafficking charges.
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