Post date: Aug 10, 2012 4:42:42 PM
JOPPOLO, CALABRIA REGION, ITALY (AUGUST 9, 2012) (CARABINIERI POLICE HANDOUT) - As temperatures on Italy's southern coast reached 33 degrees on Thursday (August 9), it seems even a fugitive mafia member could not resist the lure of heading to the beach.
The beach holiday of a top Calabria-based mafia organisation comes to an abrupt end as police arrest him while he sunbathes.
Roberto Matalone, at the beach with his wife and children, was just standing up to adjust his beach umbrella when Italian police swooped.
Police say the 35-year old, who has been on the run for two years, is in the inner circle of the Pesce clan, one of the most powerful branches of the Calabria-based mafia organisation, the 'Ndrangheta.
His sister is married to Francesco Pesce, the mob boss arrested in his hideout in an underground bunker last year.
The arrest is the latest in a crackdown by Italian police on the criminal organisation, which according to Italy's anti-mafia body, controls 80 percent of drug trafficking into Europe, and earns 27 billion euro a year from drugs alone.
Police had been closing in on Matalone in the past few days, concentrating their search around Joppolo harbour in the toe of the Italian boot, observing as Matalone's wife continually changed cars in an effort to evade them.
CCTV footage showed a relaxed Matalone heading to the beach in shorts and a baseball cap, with a towel slung over his shoulder.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, his beach reading material was 'Cacciatori di mafiosi', a non-fiction work about how Italian police track mafia figures on the run.