When engaging in illegal activities, it’s not uncommon for people to uses aliases of all kinds. The reasons for this are self-explanatory, and the process of selecting an alias is one that some have honed to an art. But there are others whose chosen appellations have led them to some unexpected places. But as a news story developing in Italy shows, if you are choosing a false name to use for a criminal enterprise, it helps to not pick one already used in a successful series of action movies.
At IndieWire, Ryan Lattanzio has the details emerging from Italy, where police uncovered an operation shipping cocaine hidden inside of coffee. The coffee originated in Colombia and was bound for Florence. In and of itself, that might not arouse much suspicion. However, the name on the package indicated to law enforcement that something might be off. Why? The name in question was Santino D’Antonio.
If that sounds familiar to you, you might also recall that Santino D’Antonio was the name of the villain of John Wick: Chapter 2. This prompted police to investigate, and led to the arrest of the tobacconist to whom the package was headed. It also led to a clever name for the investigation itself, as Lattanzio writes:
Italian police named their operation “Caffè Scorretto,” which translates in English to “Improper Coffee.” This cheeky name is a play on the country’s popular caffè corretto, which consists of a shot of espresso with a nip of liquor.
Can a knowledge of fictional crimes help get to the bottom of some real-life illegal activity? In this case, it really can.
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