The boss who lived on the run from home: Christmas ended in Poggioreale for Ciro Andolfi.

He was looking forward to yet another Christmas as a fugitive, with the table set and the family gathered as if nothing had happened. Relatives had already purchased everything they needed: traditional Neapolitan dishes, holiday supplies, the illusion of a normality built in the shadows.

But for Ciro Andolfi, 49, a prominent member of the Andolfi-Cuccaro clan of Barra, the holidays ended with him being handcuffed and transferred to Poggioreale prison.

After three years on the run, the Carabinieri of the Naples Investigative Unit, acting on behalf of the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, executed a concurrent sentence order issued by the Attorney General's Office at the Naples Court of Appeal. Andolfi faces a remaining sentence of 8 years, 3 months, and 10 days for mafia association, extortion aggravated by mafia methods, and corruption.

Previously included in the list of the "top 100" most dangerous fugitives in Italy, Andolfi is the 22nd fugitive captured in 2025 by the Carabinieri of the Naples Provincial Command, following a complex investigative effort involving shadowing, technical checks, and silent monitoring.

On the run for three years, but hiding in his own home

The investigators' real discovery was something else: Ciro Andolfi had never left his territory. For at least three years, he had been living as a fugitive in his own home on Via Giulia Lama, in the heart of the Barra neighborhood, just steps from his family and criminal network.

During the search, the officers discovered a hidden space artfully carved into the wall of one of the rooms. A secret compartment, invisible to a cursory inspection, designed to disappear in seconds. The entrance was concealed behind a radiator mounted on the wall. At the back, a trapdoor in the wall provided entry into a narrow space, yet large enough to evade any potential raids.

A simple yet effective ploy, which allowed the boss to live as a wanted man without ever leaving home, relying on the protection of his home and neighborhood.

The raid began at dawn, with the deployment of specialized assets from the Carabinieri Provincial Command. When the soldiers stormed the bunker, it wasn't enough to save him. For Andolfi, his time on the run ended there, behind that wall built to disappear. This time, he'll spend Christmas behind bars.

In his bunker he had a cage with birds that kept him company and a statuette of Our Lady of Lourdes.