Manhunt on for Mass. gang member linked to Mafia who kicked open door of prison van in Ky.
By APThursday, April 15, 2010
Mafia-linked gang member escapes prison van in Ky.
VERSAILLES, Ky. — Authorities in central Kentucky are searching for a federal inmate from Massachusetts who escaped a prisoner transport van by kicking out the door.
Versailles (ver-SAYLZ) police spokesman Pat Melton said authorities are searching Woodford County and the city of Lexington for 37-year-old Derek A. Capozzi.
In 2005, Capozzi was identified by federal prosecutors as a member of a Mafia-affiliated drug gang that killed a 19-year-old woman suspected of cooperating with investigators.
Capozzi was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for helping to dismember and hide the body. Melton said he also was serving time for trying to kill a correctional officer.
A U.S. Marshal told The Boston Globe Capozzi was “extremely dangerous.”
(This version CORRECTS the age of the escapee to 37, not 32.)
