<p><br /> A veteran Italian mobster was arrested after 17 years on the run, but a crowd cheered him as he was escorted out of a police station.<br /> </p><p><br /> Giovanni Tegano, a member of the 'Ndrangheta organised crime group, was on the list of Italy's top 30 most wanted fugitives.<br /> </p><p><br /> Officials described the 70-year-old as a notorious figure in the crime-ridden area and hailed his arrest as a tough blow to the crime syndicate, based in the poor region of Calabria and considered more powerful than the Sicilian Mafia.<br /> </p><p><br /> Police cordoned off the cheering crowd of scores of people as Tegano was leaving the police headquarters in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy.<br /> </p><p><br /> Tegano was implicated in a turf war in the mid-1980s that left scores dead, and has been convicted and sentenced to life in jail in absence.<br /> </p><p><br /> He was apprehended on Monday evening in a house on the hills surrounding Reggio Calabria, the regional capital. Also arrested were five men who were with him and are accused of helping him during his years as a fugitive.<br /> </p>
