Alleged Corsican Crime Boss Arrested at Bastia Airport After International Manhunt

The gendarmerie deployed major resources to arrest Laurent Emmanuelli on Friday morning in Bastia, when he got off a plane from Paris, as part of investigations led by the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, in charge of organized crime cases, as well as within the framework of a judicial investigation by a Bastia investigating judge, said one of the sources close to the case. He was apprehended by a large gendarmerie device, said another source close to the file, confirming information from Corse-Matin.

The 32-year-old man had been arrested in Morocco in August 2021 and placed in detention for extradition to France "as part of warrants for murder, extortion and attempted murder," according to a confidential note from the national police dated March 2022. The same document indicates that the authorities consider him a close associate of the Moretti brothers and a potential "support" to the Orsoni clan in Balagne (Haute-Corse).

Several suspicions weigh on the thirty-year-old. He would have tried in May 2019 to attack Dominique said "Mimi" Costa with his 22-year-old right-hand man, Antoine Francisci. While the latter was at the wheel of a buggy in the early morning in Pietralba, he had been shot dead that day, about fifteen kilometers from Moltifao, the stronghold of the Costa family, active at the heart of the island’s banditry. According to the investigators, Dominique Costa would have learned that the two men were going to eliminate him and he would have applied a form of "preventive self-defense", had indicated sources close to the investigation in July 2020.

At the time, Laurent Emmanuelli was known for "undeclared work, threats, explosive attacks and organized gang involvement in gambling".