Foul Escape for Italian Mafia Boss

ROME, Jan. 13, 2008 — -- A manhunt continued in Italy today after one of the country's most-wanted fugitives, barefoot and dressed only in pajamas, eluded police arrest for the third time Monday.

Mafia leader Giuseppe Setola ducked into the underground sewer system through a trap door under a bed in his hideout near northern Naples early Monday morning, disappearing into the putrid tunnels, accompanied by one of his bodyguards. Hot in pursuit, a number of carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, clambered down after him after finding the trap door, but they were too late.

Press reports today said Setola made his abrupt getaway into the sewers at 4:30 a.m. Monday morning. After crawling along for about 1.5 miles in the dank, foul-smelling tunnels, he emerged from a manhole in front of a cheese shop and stole a woman's car as she was about to drive off.

The car was later found abandoned in the area close to where another car was stolen shortly afterward. Police believe he is trying to make his way to a "safe house" somewhere in the area controlled by the powerful Casalesi clan, between Caserta and Naples in southern Italy.

Setola, who has already been sentenced to life in prison, is the boss of the Casalesi clan in the Camorra crime organization. Prosecutors believe he is responsible for drug trafficking, extortion and multiple brutal killings in the area.

Setola is on Italy's list of the 30-most-wanted fugitives and is suspected of being responsible for the massacre of six West African immigrants who were murdered in the nearby town of Castel Volturno in September.

Soon after the murders and an ensuing immigrant protest, the Italian government sent in the army to help the local police. Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, said the Casalesi clan had "declared a war on the Italian state."

Today the manhunt remains on high alert. Road blocks have been set up throughout the area, and the police believe Setola is relying on a local support network to evade capture. A spokesman at carabinieri headquarters refused to comment on the ongoing police operation.