Mafia killer who dissolved bodies in acid caught, was working as pizza chef

Greco is now in detention after appearing before an investigating magistrate in Lyon, who formally notified him of the Italian arrest warrant.

A convicted murderer with ties to one of Italy's most notorious mafia organisations was caught and arrested Thursday in France, where he was working as a pizza chef. The International Criminal Police Organisation, or Interpol, said Edgardo Greco, 63, was on the run for over 16 years and was finally apprehended from Saint-Etienne in the French Alps area.

Greco was working in a pizza restaurant in Saint Etienne, France. (Interpol website)

Greco is now in detention after appearing before an investigating magistrate in Lyon, who formally notified him of the Italian arrest warrant, British publication Guardian said.

He is believed to have ties to the dangerous 'Ndrangheta - an organised crime syndicate from the Calabria region of southern Italy. Greco was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Italian court of killing two rivals - Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo - in 2006. Their bodies were never recovered; media reports claims Greco used acid to dissolve the corpses.

Greco escaped from police custody shortly afterwards and did not resurface till 2014 - as Paolo Dimitrio. In those eight years he worked in several restaurants before setting up his own eatery - Caffe Rossini Ristorante. So secure was he in his alias that Greco appeared in local TV and newspapers ads to market his restaurant's recipes, the BBC reported.

Greco is also accused of the attempted murder of another man - Emiliano Mosciaro.

'Ndrangheta is considered to be one of the world’s most powerful organised crime syndicates and has a global presence with links to cocaine and weapons trafficking.

This is the second major mafia figure arrested by European officials in the past weeks.

Last month Matteo Messina Denaro - one of Italy's most wanted mafia bosses - was caught by police in Sicily where he was undergoing unspecified medical treatment.

Denaro - reportedly on run for nearly three decades - has been convicted of dozens of murders, including helping to plan a pair of bombings that killed top anti-Mafia prosecutors.