Giovanni Tegano is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

 mafia. He was a fugitive since 1993 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy, until his arrest in April 2010. He has been convicted to life imprisonment for murder, arms trafficking and mafia association.

He is considered to be the boss of the Tegano 'ndrina. The clan hails from the Archi neighbourhood in the city of Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria

Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...

, and also includes his brothers Pasquale and Giuseppe. At time of his arrest in April 2010, Tegano was regarded as one of the few remaining bosses of the 'Ndrangheta's old guard.

Second 'Ndrangheta war

The Tegano clan sided with the De Stefano

De Stefano 'ndrina

The De Stefano 'ndrina is one of the most powerful clans of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina hailed from the Archi neighbourhood in Reggio Calabria. Several of its members were included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy...

 clan in the Second 'Ndrangheta war, which raged from 1985 to 1991. The alliance was sealed by the marriage between Orazio De Stefano and Antonietta Benestare, a niece of Giovanni Tegano on December 2, 1985. The bloody six-year war between the Condello

Pasquale Condello

Pasquale Condello is an Italian criminal known as a member of the 'Ndrangheta. He is also known as "Il supremo" for his role at the top of the crime syndicate. He was a fugitive since 1990 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture in February 2008...

-Imerti

Antonio Imerti

Antonio Imerti , also known as "Nanu feroce" , is an Italian criminal and a member of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia...

 clan and De Stefano allied with the Tegano clan left 621 deaths.

While the main leaders of De Stefano clan were killed it fell upon the Teganos to wage the war. The Teganos were the key negotiators for the 'pax mafiosa' in Reggio Calabria in the 1990s between the Tegano, De Stefano, Libri and Latella clans on one side and the Imerti, Serraino, Condello and Rosmini clans on the other, in which they divided their spheres of influence in Reggio Calabria. He became a member of La Provincia, a provincial commission of the 'Ndrangheta, formed at the end of the war in September 1991 to avoid further internal conflicts.

Fugitive and arrest

He became a fugitive in 1993. His brother Pasquale Tegano, wanted since 1994, was arrested on August 6, 2004. At that time, differences between the Tegano clan and the De Stefanos emerged over the division of extortion rackets. The Teganos secured the neutrality of their old enemy Pasquale Condello

Pasquale Condello

Pasquale Condello is an Italian criminal known as a member of the 'Ndrangheta. He is also known as "Il supremo" for his role at the top of the crime syndicate. He was a fugitive since 1990 and included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy until his capture in February 2008...

.

After being on the run for 17 years, he was arrested in Reggio Calabria on April 26, 2010. Tegano did not resist arrest, though he had a loaded gun with him. The next day, a group of friends, relatives and supporters applauded when he left the Reggio Calabria court house on his way to jail. "Giovanni is a man of peace!" one woman shouted. The Italian Minister of the Interior, Roberto Maroni

Roberto Maroni

Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...

, commented that "his capture is the hardest blow that we could inflict today to the 'Ndrangheta as he was the number one Calabrian fugitive." "Given his role, seniority and the importance of events he knew, he had risen to the ranks of one of the 'Ndrangheta's most important figures," according to a top police official, Renato Cortese.