Clement Messino, a reputed Chicago mob figure who escaped jail while awaiting trial on federal drug charges, was captured Friday in Florida.
He was apprehended on an oceanfront causeway in Ft. Lauderdale by FBI agents and federal marshals, said Canella Henrichs, an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago who is prosecuting the case.
Investigators said he was on the causeway to book a seat on a boat leaving for Costa Rica.
The arrest of Messino, 45, ended a manhunt that began July 2 when he walked out of federal custody to keep a medical appointment at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
After he failed to show up, authorities charged his wife with aiding the escape.
Pamela Messino accompanied her husband to the hospital, but failed to remain with him, as required under an order governing his release from the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Messino, a former Chicago police officer, faces trial Nov. 2 on charges he directed a suburban cocaine network.
A federal magistrate had ordered him held without bail after his arrest on the drug charges. But a judge allowed him out to make unescorted trips to the hospital.
Messino was being held in Florida awaiting a hearing Monday.
