Marc Feren Claude Biart, 53, had been wanted for arrest since 2014 for allegedly trafficking cocaine
An Italian fugitive on the run in the Caribbean successfully hid his face on social media but couldn't mask his passion for food — and after authorities spotted cooking videos he posted to YouTube, they took him into custody.
The wanted man, Marc Feren Claude Biart, apparently made sure the camera focused primarily on his hands in his culinary tutorials. But the videos still captured his distinctive tattoos, which helped investigators trace him to his hideaway home in the Dominican Republic.
On Monday Biart, 53, was met at the airport in Milan after arriving on a flight from Santo Domingo, following his earlier arrest in the Dominican beach town of Boca Chica, according to The Washington Post and The Guardian.
Biart is believed to be a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate operating from the Calabria region of southern Italy's boot-shaped peninsula, and has been on the run since 2014, when his arrest was ordered for allegedly trafficking cocaine into the Netherlands, reports NBC News.Before he was arrested in the Caribbean, he'd been living quietly in Boca Chica, a tourist destination where the Italian ex-pat community considered him a "foreigner" and from which he kept his distance, said police, reports the Guardian.
According to the outlet, 'Ndrangheta's alleged control over most of the cocaine entering Europe makes it one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates, surpassing Sicily's Cosa Nostra as Italy's biggest mafia organization.
An attorney who might speak for Biart was not immediately identified.
