PARIS — A suspected Mafioso who has spent 16 years on the run has been arrested in St Etienne in central eastern France, Interpol has announced.

Edgardo Greco, 63, an alleged member of the Calabrian mafia – the 'Ndrangheta — was arrested on Thursday morning.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for two murders committed in January 1991 and an attempted murder in July 1991.

Greco was arrested by the French police with information provided by the Italian carabinieri, shared between the two partner countries thanks to the I-Can project (Interpol cooperation against the 'Ndrangheta).

The Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, said he was very satisfied with the important joint operation.

“The activity of law enforcement is unceasing, silently involved day after day, in Italy and abroad, in a continuous work to safeguard the safety of citizens,” he said on Twitter. "The strong action of the State against all forms of organized crime" will continue "with determination".

Edgardo Greco was working as a pizza maker in a pizzeria in Saint-Etienne, under the name Paolo Dimitri - the identity of a criminal from Puglia, according to Italian news agency AGI.

He was allegedly a member of the Perna-Pranno clan, which was the most important in the city of Cosenza, where he lived.

"He is considered jointly responsible for the ambush of January 5, 1991 which cost the lives of brothers Stefano and Giuseppe B. who wanted greater autonomy and consideration among the clans of Cosenza", a press release from the Italian Carabinieri said.

The victims had been killed "with iron bars in a fish warehouse (...) and their bodies disappeared and were never found", the Carabinieri statment said.

Last month the Carabinieri arrested Matteo Messina Denaro Italy's most-wanted mobster, who was found hiding in Palermo, Sicily after 30 years on the run. — Euronews