Mexico City, Mar 13 (IANS): Italian investigators used Facebook to hunt down a wanted fugitive in Mexico after he posted pictures under an alias.

According to a report in Telegraph on Sunday, 65-year-old Giulio Perrone used Saverio Garcia Galiero as his alias on Facebook and posted photos on Saturday showing a happy man living large south of the border.

Perrone, a convicted drug smuggler, had been running from the law for more than two decades.

"Italian forensic police monitoring mobster family Facebook posts discovered he was using the alias Saverio Garcia Galiero. Galiero was his mother's maiden name, which helped police trace him back to Italy," the report said.

Perrone closely worked with Mazzarella, Formicola, Polverino and Tolomelli mafia clans and was officially declared a fugitive after a Naples court found him guilty of international drug trafficking, sentencing him to 22-years in jail.

"This arrest is part of a larger strategy being coordinated by the anti-crime division of the Italian police to capture mafia fugitives who have been taking refuge abroad for many years," the report quoted Italian authorities as saying.