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Pakistani fugitive held in Italy
A Pakistani fugitive who had been on the run since 2006 after being sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for drug and human trafficking has been arrested in Italy.
A Pakistani fugitive who had been on the run since 2006 after being sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for drug and human trafficking has been arrested in Italy.
A court in Gujranwala in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province in November 2006 issued an international arrest warrant against Mazhar Iqbal Butter after convicting him of being part of a gang in Pakistan which trafficked migrants to western Europe via Iran, Turkey and Greece.
Police Friday confirmed 32-year-old Butter's arrest at the immigration office in the northwestern coastal city of Livorno, as he was applying for an Italian residency permit.
"Police set a trap for him, telling him there was a problem with his application, and followed him to Livorno from the city of Brescia," investigator Michele Viola said.
Butter entered Italy in 2007 with a false passport and lived in several locations in and around the northern city of Brescia but travelled frequently to visit members of the Pakistani community in the central Italian city of Latina near Rome, Viola said.
"We investigated him for four months, after doubts emerged over his identity," Viola said, adding, "He has admitted his passport was false, and that he is indeed Butter."
Butter will be in Livorno jail pending his deportation to Pakistan, the official said.
