'Ndrangheta boss Rocco Morabito, Italy's second most wanted fugitive after the infamous Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested in a hotel in Joao Pessoa in northeastern Brazil on Monday, almost two years after his escape from a prison in Uruguay.

In 1995 an international arrest warrant was issued for Morabito, now 55 years old, for drug trafficking and mafia activities, when the mafia boss earned the nickname the "king of cocaine."

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The Italian justice system has accused him, among other crimes, of ensuring the transport of drugs into Italy and their sale in Milan, as well as attempting to import 592 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil in 1992 and 630 kilograms in 1993.

Morabito, also known as "U Tamunga" for driving a German military vehicle, the DKW Munga, along the beaches of his native coastal town, moved from Calabria, Italy's southern region which serves as the base for the 'Ndrangheta mafia group, to Milan when he was 23.

He escaped arrest by the Italian police in 1994 and lived as a fugitive in Latin America, including 13 years in Uruguay under a false name, until he was arrested by Uruguayan police in 2017.

In 2000, he had been condemned by a court in Palermo to 22 years in prison for drug trafficking and in 2001 another court in Milan had sentenced him in his absence to 30 years in prison. Another sentence for 10 years in prison came in 2005 from a court in Reggio, Calabria.

But in June 2019, only a few days before being extradited to Italy, Morabito escaped with three other inmates from the prison in Uruguay's capital through a hole in the roof, causing a massive manhunt that ended up with the Italian mob boss still on the loose and the Montevideo prison chief's resignation.

The arrest of Morabito in Joao Pessoa is an achievement for both Italy, where the 'Ndrangheta' is now the most powerful criminal organization in the country, and Brazil, which has recently taken on a key role in tackling the transatlantic drug trade.