Sentenced in 2006 to 13 years and 4 months imprisonment for international drug trafficking, a man on the run was arrested on his way to his daughter's birthday party, Italian police said on Friday.
Plainclothes gendarmes had watched the house of his wife and daughter to identify him.
An Italian drug dealer, on the run for more than 15 years, was arrested when he visited his daughter's 23rd birthday in Rome, Italian police said on Friday.
David Cittadini went into the bush in March 2006 after his conviction to 13 years and 4 months for international drug trafficking, according to a statement.
The Italian gendarmes were on his tracks and knew that he was in hiding in Spain but that he maintained close relations with his mother and daughter, both residing in a district of Rome.
The mother and daughter's house was closely watched
In the days leading up to the girl's 23rd birthday, plainclothes gendarmes began to monitor the house where the two women lived, until a man resembling the fugitive appeared in the building.
The police then intervened and arrested the man who was trying to hide in a bedroom.
The fugitive had a false Italian identity card which he had used that morning to board a Barcelona-Rome flight.
One of the leaders of a vast network of traffickers
David Cittadini was considered to be one of the heads of a network of drug traffickers dismantled following an investigation launched after two major drug seizures: 16 tonnes of hashish in 1999 and above all 2.1 tonnes of cocaine, seized in 2004 by Spanish customs off the Canary Islands, according to the same source.