Police arrest suspected crime boss in hideout in his home in southern Italy

Police arrest suspected crime boss in south Italy

ROME — Police say they arrested a fugitive crime boss who they found holed up in a secret room of his brother’s house in the southern Italian region of Calabria.

Officials of the Carabinieri paramilitary police force in Reggio Calabria say Salvatore Coluccio has been a fugitive since 2005.

They say Coluccio tried to elude capture on Sunday by slipping through a closet to the secret room in the house in the town of Marina Gioiosa Ionica.

Police say the house belongs to his brother Giuseppe Coluccio, who was arrested a year ago in Canada.

Investigators allege the brothers are involved in international drug trafficking run by the ‘ndrangheta organized crime syndicate.