Rome – Antonio Delli Paoli, a life prisoner and leading figure of the Piccolo clan of Marcianise, was extradited today from France and brought to Italy.
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The man arrived at Fiumicino airport, where agents of the State Police - Caserta Mobile Squad, the Carabinieri of the Marcianise Company and the Border Police Office executed the order to reinstate his detention.
After the formal procedures, Delli Paoli was transferred to the Viterbo prison. The extradition was ordered following a European arrest warrant issued by the Attorney General's Office at the Court of Appeal of Naples, after his escape from the Carinola prison (Caserta), which occurred on December 30, 2024.
The man, detained since 1994 with a life sentence for mafia-related murder, had not returned to prison at the end of a release granted by the supervisory magistrate of Santa Maria Capua Vetere.
The investigations, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Naples and conducted by Police State and Carabinieri, led to the location and arrest of Delli Paoli on January 15 in Strasbourg, France. The man had been identified while taking part in a protest demonstration in front of the European Parliament.
A bloody past in the feud between clans
Anthony Delli Paoli he is considered a historical exponent of the Piccolo clan, also known as “Quaqquaroni”, part of the Casalesi criminal cartel. The faction, active in Marcianise and in the province of Caserta, was the protagonist of a bloody Camorra war with the rival Belforte clan, alias “Mazzacane”, between 1986 and 2007.
The conflict, which arose from the opposition between Raffaele Cutolo's "Nuova Camorra Organizzata" and the "Nuova Famiglia", has caused dozens of murders for control of the territory.
Delli Paoli, known by the nickname “Pullastriello”, was among the main opponents of Cutolo's NCO. His life sentence is linked to the murder of Salvatore Ruocchio, which took place in Ardea (Rome) on 27 June 1990, for which he was found guilty by the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Rome in 1993.
Article published on March 14, 2025 - 18pm
It's strange how some criminals manage to escape justice for years, but in the end they always return to Italy. This case of Delli Paoli shows how the legal system works, but there are many issues to be resolved.