A 74-year-old former member of Italy's radical Marxist group the Red Brigades has fled house arrest in Argentina while awaiting extradition to serve a 27-year prison sentence, security officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Leonardo Bertulazzi escaped from his detention in Buenos Aires on November 10 at approximately 6:01 a.m., prompting Argentina's security ministry to offer a $13,000 reward for information leading to his recapture. Security camera footage captured the fugitive dropping onto a public road as passing vehicles drove by, after which he sat down briefly to rest.
Investigators discovered that Bertulazzi engineered his escape by placing his electronic tracking device inside food packaging to conceal his absence. “First, he removed his electronic ankle monitor and placed it in a tube filled with pork, along with a blood pressure monitor to maintain the temperature. He then climbed on to a roof and, using a rope, lowered himself five meters until he jumped onto a vacant lot behind the building where he lived, and then scaled a metal gate to reach the street,” the detective said, according to the publication La Nación.
Police noticed his ankle monitor had stopped transmitting movement data and headed to the house, where they found the device discarded and Bertulazzi nowhere to be found.
Bertulazzi held a senior role in the Red Brigades, an armed radical Marxist organization active during Italy's violent "Years of Lead" period from 1969 to 1980. The organization was most infamous for the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. In 1987, an Italian court sentenced Bertulazzi to 27 years in prison for joining a subversive association and belonging to an armed group.
Having spent decades on the run, Bertulazzi was initially apprehended by Argentine authorities in 2002. Although released months later and granted refugee status in 2004, he was arrested again in 2024 after his refugee status was officially revoked, leading to his placement under house arrest in Buenos Aires. Argentina's government officially approved his extradition to Italy in July 2025 following the rejection of his final appeal by the country's supreme court.
