Rocco Morabito: Cocaine kingpin to be extradited to Italy Published duration 10 March 2018

image copyright EPA / Italian Police

Uruguay has agreed to extradite a notorious drug trader known as the "cocaine king of Milan" back to Italy.

Rocco Morabito was arrested last year in the Uruguayan resort town of Punta del Este, where he had been living under a false identity for about a decade.

The suspected head of the 'Ndrangheta crime gang has been one of Italy's most wanted fugitives since 1995.

His lawyer says he will appeal against the extradition order.

The judge, a specialist in organised crime, approved the extradition earlier in the week, and the Uruguayan press received its confirmation on Friday.

Uruguay's El País newspaper reports that he was extradited on the basis of prior convictions for links to organised crime and drug trafficking - issued in absentia - rather than for a new trial.

You may also be interested in:

Morabito's lawyer told the newspaper he plans to appeal the ruling on the basis that the extradition treaty between the two countries does not cover convictions issued in absentia.

The 'Ndrangheta gang controls about 80% of Europe's cocaine trade. Police say Morabito was behind the smuggling of hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Brazil to Italy.

He was arrested last September while staying in a hotel in Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, where he had gone after having a fight with his wife.