One of Italy's most dangerous fugitives has been caught in Greece after a photo of him cheering on his football team gave away his whereabouts.

Vincenzo La Porta, 60, is thought to have close ties to the Camorra organised crime gang in Naples.

He has been on the run for 11 years - but earlier this year was spotted in a photo of fans celebrating in Greece.

The Naples Carabinieri police said: "What betrayed him was his passion for football and for the Napoli."

Officers said the photos were taken after Napoli won its first Italian championship in over three decades earlier this year.

"With the championship victory, La Porta couldn't resist celebrating," police said.

La Porta has already been convicted in absentia in Italy for criminal association, tax evasion and fraud.

Police finally arrested him on Friday while he was riding his moped on the Greek island of Corfu and he is now currently in a jail awaiting extradition to Italy.

If he is extradited to Italy, he is due serve a prison sentence of 14 years and four months.

La Porta's lawyer told AP news agency: "He has started a new family in Greece... He has a nine-year-old boy and is working as a cook to get by. He suffers from heart ailments. If he's extradited, he and his family will be ruined."

The authorities were relentless in their pursuit of La Porta, tracking his financial and online movements closely and "waited for him to make a misstep".

Back in May, La Porta could not contain his excitement when Napoli won its first Serie A title after 33 years.

The police spotted him in a photo outside a Corfu restaurant among Napoli fans donning a baseball cap and waving the team's sky blue and white colours.

The investigators knew they had their man and followed him to Greece.

With a little help from their Greek colleagues, they arrested him on Friday, the Greek police said.

In January, this year, an Italian mafia boss who was on the run for decades was arrested after a Google Maps sighting.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by Charlene Anne Rodrigues

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