Member of Italian mafia arrested in Ecuador

Ecuador's Ministry of Interior said on Friday that an Italian citizen wanted for criminal association in Italy was arrested in the country. The ministry said in a statement posted on its website that Valentino Alampi was arrested on Thursday in Guayaquil (southwest) by agents from the Ecuadorian section of the International Police (Interpol) together with the national Anti-Crime Intelligence Unit. Alampi was transferred to Quito, the capital of Ecuador, after the arrest and will be extradited to Italy. Alampi has an international warrant issued by Interpol to face a four-and-a-half-year sentence imposed by the Appeal Court from Reggio Calabria, in southern Italy. He is convicted on the crime of mafia association, according to the statement. The sentence came after Alampi was found to be a member of a mafia group called Cosca Alampi, which controlled the public service contracts for waste disposal.