An off-duty non-commissioned officer serving with the Carabinieri's Marano Company recognized a wanted man sitting at a bar in Arzano and set an arrest in motion, according to Il Mattino.
The man was identified as Michele De Ponte. The officer called for reinforcements before the arrest was carried out.
According to the report, De Ponte had been wanted for about a year and a half. The arrest was made under an imprisonment enforcement order issued on 10 July 2025 by the Prosecutor General's Office at the Naples Court of Appeal.
The reported remaining sentence was 7 years, 10 months and 7 days in prison, along with a fine of €1,324,000, for offences connected to smuggling of manufactured tobacco.
After the formalities, De Ponte was taken to Naples-Poggioreale prison, the report states.
No independent official statement confirming the arrest was cited in the available report, which also did not name the bar or give the exact time of the intervention.
