Mafia fugitive arrested in Spain after appearing on Google Maps

Gioacchino Gammino is escorted by police in Madrid, Spain in this image taken from a December 2021 video. (Policia Nacional via Storyful)

Almost 20 years after escaping prison in Italy, a Mafia fugitive was captured after appearing in a Google Maps image in Spain.

Italian newspaper la Repubblica reports Gioacchino Gammino, 61, was apprehended by Spanish police on Dec. 17, 2021 in Galapagar, a town north of Spain’s capital, Madrid. An apparent 2018 Google Maps Street View image of Gammino talking to another man in front of a small produce shop in Galapagar led investigators to the fugitive.

According to la Repubblica, Gammino was a member of the Sicilian Stidda Mafia group who escaped a Rome jail in 2002, a year before he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for murder. La Repubblica says Gammino ran a restaurant in Galapagar, where he lived under a false name.

A video released by Spain’s National Police shows Gammino under guard in Madrid.

According to Reuters, Gammino is currently in Spain awaiting extradition to Italy.