Italian police have arrested top mafia fugitive Marco Di Lauro, the fourth son of Camorra boss Paolo Di Lauro and the only one still at large, officials said on Saturday.

Di Lauro, 38, was arrested without a fight at an apartment in the Chiaiano district in southern city Naples where he was with his wife, Italian news agencies reported.

An international arrest warrant was issued for him in 2006, and he was second on Italy's most-wanted list after notorious Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

Photos in Italian media showed Di Lauro wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt being brought to the police station in Naples by car, with a police helicopter overhead.

Around 100 people including police gathered outside shouting "well done, well done", local media reported.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini hailed a "very important operation, no respite for criminals."

Di Lauro had been on the run since he escaped a massive police swoop in 2004 known as the "night of the handcuffs".

An informant said in 2010 that Di Lauro was responsible for at least four murders.

Marco's father Paolo Di Lauro was head of the Camorra clan that operates in Naples' impoverished Scampia and Secondigliano neighbourhoods.

At least 130 people were killed in a bloody turf war there after the Amato-Pagano clan split from the Di Lauro clan in 2004.