An alleged boss of the Camorra, the Naples-area Mafia, was arrested overnight at an upmarket apartment in Rome, news reports said yesterday.

Giuseppe Sarno, 50, tried to flee over the rooftops of Rome's trendy Trastevere district but was quickly apprehended, police told the Ansa news agency, adding that two packed suitcases were found in the flat.

The Sarno clan, from the Ponticelli area on the outskirts of Naples, is considered one of the most powerful clans of the organised crime syndicate in the southern Italian city.

The subject of a manhunt since January, Giuseppe Sarno was consolidating his power after recent arrests weakened the rival Mazzarella clan in the Naples area, police said.

He was tracked down after police stopped some close relatives who had come to Rome to help celebrate his 50th birthday late last month.