Italian drug trafficker suspected of having bought 2 stolen Van Gogh paintings arrested

One of Italy’s most wanted men, an alleged top drug trafficker suspected of having bought two stolen Van Gogh paintings on the black market, has been arrested in Dubai, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

Raffaele Imperiale, an alleged kingpin in the Naples-based Camorra organized crime syndicate, was arrested on August 4, Italy’s state police and financial crimes police corps said in a joint statement.

Imperiale, 46, is being held in the UAE while Italy’s justice ministry completes extradition procedures.

Since January 2016, Imperiale has been sought by Italy for international drug trafficking as part of organized crime activity, according to the Italian interior ministry. He was considered one of Italy’s most dangerous and most wanted fugitives.

In 2016, two Van Gogh works, stolen in 2002 from an Amsterdam museum, were found stashed in a farmhouse on property owned by Imperiale in the Naples-area town of his birth, Castellamare di Stabia. These were the 1882 View of the Sea at Scheveningen and a 1884-1885 work, Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, which had been stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.