How Does Google Maps Help Police Capture Mafia Fugitives?

Google Maps is very good for getting around. But people should not be fooled because the app is much more than that.

Having all sorts of powerful features and time saving shortcuts, Maps helps also police catch many criminals who were on wanted lists for years.

The Italian mafia boss case may be the recent example manifesting Google Maps' important role in tracking down Gioacchino Gammino who had been on the run for 20 years after being marked on Google Street View, The Guardian reports.

The mafia kingpin is a convicted murderer listed among the most wanted gangsters in Italy; he was arrested in Galapagar, a Spanish town near Madrid, where he married and owned a fruit and vegetable shop after changing his name to Manuel, according to the same source.

 

Facial Recognition

With the help of Google Maps, the Italian police have tracked down a top mafia fugitive who had been fleeing for 20 years, according to Reuters.

After two years of investigation, Gioacchino Gammino, 61, was spotted in Galapagar town, where he lived with a fake name.

A deeper investigation has started after “Google Maps Street View picture portraying a man who looked like him in front of a fruit shop.”

"The photogram helped us to confirm the investigation we were developing in traditional ways," Nicola Altiero, deputy director of the Italian anti-mafia police unit (DIA), said.

The top mafia fugitive was a member of a Sicilian mafia group dubbed Stidda; in 2002, he had fled Rebibbia prison in Rome and in 2003 he had been sentenced to life imprisonment for an assassination he committed years ago, according to the same source.

Altiero said that “Gammino is currently under custody in Spain” waiting to bring him back to Italy by the end of February, 2022.

The Guardian indicated that the Sicilian police conducted many investigations in looking for Gammino, while a European arrest warrant was issued in 2014.

The mafia boss was detected in Spain, but it was Google Street View “that helped to pinpoint his precise location,” reported the same source.

 

'How Did You Find Me?'

After 20 years of escape, the police found a photo of Gammino, dressed in his chef’s wear, “on a still-existing Facebook page for La Cocina de Manu," according to The Guardian.

The same source pointed out that the mafia boss was detectable by the scar on the left side of his chin.

Gammino was arrested on 17 December, 2021, but the details about how he was captured and tracked were not available until “they were reported by La Repubblica on Wednesday”, and confirmed by the Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, who carried out the recent investigation.

“It’s not as if we spend our days wading through Google Maps to find fugitives,” he told The Guardian.

“There were many previous and long investigations, which led us to Spain. We were on a good path, with Google Maps helping to confirm our investigations,” he added.

 

 

20 years away from police sight, Gammino thought he had succeeded in cutting out all his ties with Sicily. While arresting him, he told police: “How did you find me? I haven’t even called my family for 10 years!”

Back to his criminal CV, The Guardian gave a glimpse into Gammino’s past and said that he dived to a mafia line in Agrigento, Sicily, which was scissored in a bloody fight with the Sicily major mafia network called Cosa Nostra in the 1990s.

The 61-year-old criminal was first arrested in 1984, while investigated by the anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone who was assassinated 8 years later by the mafia.

Gammino was wanted for killing and many other horrible crimes related to the mafia. Arrested for a second time in Barcelona in 1998, Gioacchino Gammino was expected to serve a life sentence at Rebibbia prison in Rome, however he succeeded to escape from jail in 2002, while shooting a film at the prison.

 

A Dragnet for the Police

The mafia gangster was not the only arrested who has been caught with the help of Google Maps, proven to be a great tool in identifying crimes, missing people and nabbing the criminals.

The Sun published a report in September 2019 in which it referred to staggering crimes solved by Google Earth.

Among these, was David who had been missing for 22 years before his car was captured beneath the surface of the waters in Florida.

For 22 years, no one could notice the vehicle until, by chance, it was spotted on Google Earth, “the latest in an astonishing list of crimes solved by the digital map service.”

A check on Google Earth showed that there is a car in the water and when the cops pulled it out, they identified the remains inside as David by his wallet.

Google Maps also exposed secret drug farms in addition to the murder of two women and two kids thanks to the app.

According to the same British newspaper, a horrific video was circulating on social media in 2018, revealing two women and two children being led somewhere by armed men.

Being blindfolded, the women and boys were forced to the ground, and shot 22 times.

Using Google Earth, “investigators were able to prove where and when the killings happened by comparing geographical features like buildings and trees in the video to satellite images,” The Sun reported.

Based on these demonstrations, the detectives were able to pinpoint the soldiers who were involved and “put pressure on the government to prosecute the massacre.”