An Italian fugitive accused of having coordinated the shipment of large cocaine cargoes from Latin America to Europe has been arrested in Colombia.

Colombia’s national police chief described Emanuele Gregorini, who is also known as “Dollarino”, as “the head of the Italian mafia Latin America”.

He said Gregorini had been tracked down to an apartment in the seaside city of Cartagena in a multinational operation which included Italian, British and Colombian investigators.

He had been on the run since 2023, when prosecutors accused him of being a key figure in the “Lombardy mafia system”, which they described as an alliance between the Camorra, Cosa Nostra, and ‘Ndrangheta mafia groups.

Police accuse Gregorini of having a key role in organising cocaine shipments from the Colombian port cities of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta to Europe.

Colombian Police Chief Carlos Triana said Gregorini’s arrest was “a severe blow” to transnational crime syndicates.

He also described him as an “invisible narco”, who did not draw attention to himself.

Surveillance footage published by the Colombian authorities showed him going to the gym and visiting local restaurants in the upscale neighbourhood where he had rented an apartment, apparently without fear of being recognised.

Prosecutors say his arrest in Colombia points to an increased presence of the Italian mafia in Latin America.

According to Insight Crime, a think tank specialising in organised crime, European criminal networks have been establishing their own drug smuggling routes in South America rather than relying on middlemen.

Italian mafia groups in particular have expanded their presence in Colombia and Brazil in recent years, the think tank says.

In October, Luigi Belvedere, one of Italy’s most wanted men, was detained in the city of Medellín, where he had posed beside the grave of the late Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar.