'Godfather of Uxbridge' Domenico Rancadore rearrested under new warrant

Arrest comes just a month after Rancadore escaped extradition to Italy

Sicilian mafia boss Domenico Rancadore has been arrested in London after 19 years on the run. (Police handout)

The Italian Mafia boss Domenico Rancadore has been rearrested under a new European arrest warrant issued by Italy, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.

Rancadore, 65, has been tried in his absence by an Italian court and sentenced to seven years in an Italian jail for mafia-linked crimes between 1987 and 1995.

Police said he was being held on Friday at an address in Uxbridge, west London and would appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later today.

He avoided extradition in March after a British judge ruled that Italy's prison overcrowding could breach his human rights.

Senior district judge Howard Riddle said he was bound by a higher court’s ruling that Mr Rancadore faced inhuman and degrading treatment in the Italian prison system.

Rancadore came to Britain in 1994, cutting all contact with his family in Italy and establishing himself as "Marc Skinner" in Uxbridge, where he lived undetected for over 20 years with his wife and two children.

He is the son of Giuseppe Rancadore, former head of the mafia clan in Trabia near Palermo, Sicily's capital, who is serving a life sentence in jail.

Once in Britain, he took his mother-in-law's maiden name as his surname. The family home was in his wife's name and he had no passport, national insurance number or work records.

Additional reporting by Press Association