Pizzeria chef was actually accused Italian mobster on the run for 16 years, cops say

In 2021, a local newspaper in France conducted an interview with Paolo Dimitrio, a local pizzaiolo known for cooking authentic Italian food in the town of Saint-Etienne.

Italian news outlets reported Dimitrio had been working at the pizzeria for three years after coming to the town located 300 miles south of Paris in 2014.

But the pizza chef had a hidden identity and dark past, authorities say.

After the 2021 newspaper article was published, French and Italian authorities said they were able to positively identify “Paolo Dimitrio” as Italian mobster and international fugitive Edgardo Greco, according to the BBC.

Greco was wanted for the “murders of Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, and accused of the attempted murder of Emiliano Mosciaro, all part of a ‘mafia war’ between the Pino Sena and Perna Pranno gangs that marked the early 1990s,” according to an Interpol release.

The bodies of the two brothers have never been found, and Italian outlets report they were beaten to death by a metal bar in a fish market in Calabria, Italy. They are suspected to have been dissolved in acid based on testimony from mafia informants, according to CNN.

Greco, now 63 years old, was in Italian police custody in 2006 before he escaped, and has been on the run ever since.

Interpol says Greco was part of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, which is considered the most powerful mafia group in Italy known to operate internationally through cocaine trade throughout Europe and South America.

The period of time between Greco escaping Italian custody and arriving in the southern French town is still a mystery.

“No matter how hard fugitives try to slip into a quiet life abroad, they cannot evade justice forever. Dedicated officers around the world will always ensure that justice is served,” Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock said in the release.

Google Translate was used to translate reports from Italian news outlets.

Elusive cat species with grumpy face roamed Mount Everest slopes in secret — until now

Forsaken ‘ghost’ ship to be sunk on the high seas, Brazilian navy says. Here’s why

Move over, groundhog: This clawed creature in Canada is predicting more winter weather

Cremated bones reveal Vikings weren’t alone when they arrived in Britain, study says