Italian mafia boss Rocco Morabito has fled prison in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, where he was awaiting extradition to Italy, the interior ministry  announced Monday.

File photo: AP

Morabito and three other inmates "escaped through a hole in the roof of the building" late Sunday and robbed the occupants of a nearby farmhouse, the ministry said in a statement.

The statement said Morabito -- a top 'Ndrangheta figure arrested in Uruguay in 2017 after decades on the run -- was awaiting extradition for "international drug trafficking".