Venezuela deports mafia-linked Italian for drugs

* Italian wanted in Rome on heroin smuggling charges

* Venezuela deports 14 suspected traffickers this year

CARACAS Dec 4 (Reuters) - Venezuela on Friday deported an Italian citizen wanted in Rome on charges of trafficking heroin and accused of working with the Sicilian mafia to smuggle drugs to Europe and Africa.

The accused, Walter Carapacchi, has been a fugitive since 2001 and had lived undocumented in Venezuela for nine years, police said.

"Among the crimes this citizen is accused of is belonging to the Sicilian mafia, and in the company of other members of that organization, of trafficking drugs to Europe and Africa," the police said in a statement.

Arrested last month, Carapacchi, 54, is the 14th person deported by Venezuela this year on drugs charges. Many of the alleged capos were sent to Colombia or the United States.

Venezuela is a major transit country for Colombian cocaine to Europe and to a lesser extent the United States. It has stepped up its drugs fight after a surge in trafficking a few years ago.

In June, Venezuela deported top Sicilian mafia boss Salvatore Miceli, 63, accused of overseeing major drug trafficking deals together with the Calabrian mafia 'Ndrangheta, and through contacts with Colombian cartels.

The United Nations estimates that 40 percent of the cocaine on European streets passes through Venezuela.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, editing by Vicki Allen) ((frank.daniel@thomsonreuters.com; +58 212 277 2656; Reuters Messaging: frank.daniel.reuters.com@reuters.net))