Sixty five year old Domenico Rancadore, nicknamed “The Professor,” was convicted of mafia membership in absentia in Italy in 1999 and was given a seven-year sentence for his involvement with Sicily's Cosa Nostra.
Since 2013 he has fought extradition from Britain when he was discovered living with his wife and two children in a west London house enclosed by large hedges, under the alias "Mark Skinner."
But this week Italy dropped the extradition request because his sentence expired in October 2014, according to his lawyers.
The judge found that Italy's congested prisons risked violating the human rights of Randacore, who suffers from heart problems.