Police said Mancuso, named in an arrest warrant issued by Interpol, was trying to sneak into Brazil using a fake Argentinean ID card in the name of “Luca de Bortolo” and was hiding €100,000 (US$ 129,000) in his pockets.
Suspicious Argentinian border control officials notified other law enforcement authorities Mancuso was identified through his fingerprints.
The Ndrangheta boss is currently in jail waiting to be extradited to Italy.
Mancuso is one of 11 brothers of the Limbadi clan, one of the most powerful in the city of Vibo Valentia, Calabria. They are all sons of the late Domenico Mancuso. Panataleone Mancuso’s brothers, Giuseppe, Diego and Francesco, are serving life sentences in Italy for mafia-type association and related crimes.
Pantaleone Mancuso, alias the Engineer, is wanted for Mafia-type association and double attempted murder. He was on the run since last April, when Judge Assunta Maiore of the Catanzaro tribunal issued an arrest warrant for double attempted murder of his aunt, Romana Mancuso, and his cousin, Giovanni Rizzo.
