You can take a fugitive mafioso out of Italy, but you can't take Italy – or its cuisine – out of a fugitive mafioso.

A mobster's love affair with Italian cooking has led to his arrest following over six years on the run after police recognized his tattoos in food videos he posted on YouTube.

Marc Feren Claude Biart had been wanted in his native Italy since 2014 for his involvement in cocaine trafficking in the Netherlands when he worked with a clan of the notorious 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.
The 53-year-old man went into hiding in the town of Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic, where he landed over five years ago from Costa Rica.

Biart had made sure to keep a low profile and not call attention to himself. According to the Calabria News website, he was a "foreigner" for the community of Italian expats living in the resort town, known only by his first name.

"He remained a ghost to those looking for him," the website said.

But it was his online culinary endeavors that caused his fall. Biart and his wife made several YouTube videos in which the fugitive prepared Italian fare. Although he was careful not to show his face, his tattoos were a dead giveaway, prompting Italian police to track him down with Interpol's help.

It wasn't clear what distinctive patterns he'd inked on his body. A video of his arrest showed Biart from the back flanked by guards.

Italian authorities on Monday said the man was captured last Wednesday and arrived in Milan on Sunday.

"The love of Italian cuisine made it possible to follow the traces left behind on the internet and social media," the police said in a statement.

The 'Ndrangheta is considered to be the most powerful mafia in Italy and one of the richest crime syndicates in the world, with over 50 billion euros (around $59 billion) in revenue annually. Rooted in Calabria, the toe of Italy's boot, the organization is infamous for its global reach with a presence in 32 countries, including 17 in Europe, according to Interpol.

Its activities go beyond traditional drug trafficking, extortion and money laundering to include investment in companies in construction, real estate and transport, gaming and waste disposal.

It's been a fruitful week of arrests for Italian police. On Monday, another 'Ndrangheta mobster was also caught while being treated for COVID-19 at a clinic in Lisbon, Portugal.

Francesco Pelle, who had been on the loose for 14 years, was one of the most dangerous Italian runaways and an instrumental figure in the bloody feud between two 'Ndrangheta clans, which in 2007 spiraled into a mass killing of six men in the German city of Duisberg.

This week, Italian authorities launched a three-day operational summit in collaboration with Interpol to combat the 'Ndrangheta. Both sides last year began implementing a project, the Interpol Cooperation Against 'Ndrangheta or I-CAN for short, which brought together security forces from 10 countries including France, Colombia and Australia to identify and tackle the organization's operations.

Earlier in January, Italy initiated its largest-ever mafia trial with 355 defendants, including mobsters, corrupt politicians and other associates, being prosecuted for a raft of crimes going back to the 1990s. The case features more than 900 prosecution witnesses and is expected to last at least one year.