Marco Raduano escapes from Italian prison with bedsheet rope

An Italian mob boss has escaped from his maximum security cell by scrambling down a makeshift bedsheet rope — and remains on the run as officials investigate the security lapse that allowed the Don to flee.

The escape of Marco Raduano, 40, from the Badu ’e Carros prison in Sardinia, went unnoticed for two hours because the operations room at the facility was reportedly unmanned at the time and no one was watching security footage of the prison break.

Cameras captured the tracksuit-clad reputed boss of the Sacra Corona Unita Mafia clan in Southern Italy scaling down a stone wall using the rope of bedsheets before jumping to the grass below and darting off.

He was able to quickly scale the prison’s perimeter fence and escape to freedom in the small city of Nuoro on the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the mainland Italian peninsula, according to The Times.

“This daring escape from one of Italy’s most secure jails was due to staff shortages,” union leader Giovanni Villa told Il Messaggero.

Budget cuts had meant only 50 guards were tasked with watching the compound’s 180 prisoners, many of whom are some of Italy’s most notorious mafiosos and hitmen, the outlet said.

The mob boss was reportedly said to be a model prisoner who had used his job on an upper-floor library to study the schedules of guards who patrolled the facility, and timed his escape accordingly.

“The prisoner from Puglia escaped in a daring way from one of the safest penitentiaries in Italy. It seems he had everything ready and that the escape was well planned for some time,” Villa said, according to The Telegraph.

“We have been denouncing [the] lack of personnel for months and this is the main factor that compromised security.” 

Raduano was arrested in 2018 and jailed for 18 years for cocaine trafficking, according to the report. Additionally, he was facing murder charges when he busted out of the big house, the article said.

The crime lord presides over a notoriously violent criminal outfit that’s known for shattering their victims’ skulls with shotgun blasts to deprive their families of open-casket funerals, The Times reported. His personal arsenal of weapons was said to be guarded by a boa constrictor.

Raduano’s escape coincided with a fireworks display in his hometown of Vieste, prompting the local mayor to issue a statement denying that the celebration was tied to the prison break