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Italian police have captured one of the country's most wanted mafia fugitives during a raid on a chicken farm near the southern city of Naples.

Salvatore Russo, 51, is the head of a Camorra clan which bears his name.

He has been on the run since being sentenced in 1995 to life in jail for murder and links to organised crime.

Police said he was found with weapons including a machine gun and a pistol, hiding behind a thick wall at the farm near the town of Somma Vesuviana.

Along with his brother - 62-year-old Pasquale - Russo is believed to have completely re-organised the operations of the clan-based crime syndicate since the 1990s.

"This is a heavy blow for the Camorra," said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni of Russo's capture on Saturday morning. "We are closing the net on the super-fugitives."

The Russo clan, based in the town of Nola, had an iron grip on criminal activity in some 40 towns in the Naples areas, police said.