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Brazil's Federal Police on Monday arrested Rocco Morabito, a fugitive Italian drug lord with ties to the powerful 'Ndrangheta criminal gang, underlining the growing importance of Brazil in the Europe-bound cocaine trade.

Morabito was arrested in a hotel room in the northeastern coastal city of João Pessoa, along with two other foreigners, Brazil's Justice Ministry said in a statement. One of the foreigners was another Italian fugitive it said, without giving further information.

In a separate statement, the Federal Police said that Morabito had been arrested in Uruguay in 2017, after 22 years on the run from Italian justice. He escaped from jail in Uruguay in 2019, when Brazilian authorities began investigating him.