Italian fugitive caught on the run for 11 years in Greece thanks to football photo

Vincenzo La Porta, one of Italy's most dangerous fugitives, has been caught after his whereabouts were leaked by a photo taken of him cheering on his favorite football team.

The 60 year-old who has been on the run for 11 years is thought to have close ties to the Camorra organised crime gang in Naples, reports BBC.

Earlier this year, La Porta was spotted in a photo of fans celebrating in Greece.

Officers revealed that the photos were taken after Napoli won its first Italian championship in over three decades earlier this year. The Naples Carabinieri police reported, "What betrayed him was his passion for football and for the Napoli."

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

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

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

According to reports, 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".

La Porta was spotted in a photo outside a Corfu restaurant among Napoli fans donning a baseball cap and waving the team's sky blue and white colours after Napoli won its first Serie A title after 33 years.

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.