Vinyl record sting helps Italian police catch fugitive on the run for 25 years

Officers tricked Roberto Vivaldi into sending them a record on which his fingerprints were found

Roberto Vivaldi, an Italian fraudster on Interpol's most wanted list, was caught in a police sting. AFP

Police in Italy have captured a fugitive fraudster after setting up a sting operation using a vinyl record to trick him into sending his fingerprints.

Roberto Vivaldi had been on the run for 25 years and was on Interpol's most wanted red list, until officers who were monitoring his social media conversations, believed they had tracked him down living in Venezuela and selling old vinyl records.

In a bid to confirm his identity, officers set up a fake account and ordered a copy of the vinyl LP The Girl from Ipanema.

“When the records arrived in Italy we dusted the covers for fingerprints and found what we wanted — some of the prints matched Vivaldi’s," police chief Alessandro Gallo told The Times.

The 69-year-old financier has now been extradited to Italy and arrested.

Vivaldi had been on the run since 1997 when he was given a 20-year jail sentence for fraud and money laundering.

“We checked the social media accounts of his family, friends and known associates and, using software, found some were in touch with a profile based in Venezuela,” Mr Gallo said.

“They were all very careful when communicating with this profile, until an old friend of Vivaldi’s sent birthday greetings on a day which did not coincide with the date of birth listed on the profile.”

It was discovered he had been living under an alias for decades on Margarita Island, off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea.

An undercover officer struck up a friendship with Vivaldi after ordering the record and convinced him to act as a middleman in the purchase of a tourist business on the island in a bid to lure him from his hideout.

“When Vivaldi showed up at the restaurant for an appointment he discovered the Venezuelan police were waiting for him,” Mr Gallo said.