Convicted drug trafficker Martin Evans, 52, went on the run from prison in 2011 after being granted a week’s leave on temporary licence six years into his sentence.
Evans, who featured in the Operation Zygos fugitive campaign, was apprehended at a housing complex in the Midrand area.
Investigators from the National Crime Agency alerted Interpol that the fugitive was in South Africa which led to surveillance operations being conducted by the South African Police Service.
Evans was eventually tracked down to the housing complex where officers swooped as he was getting out of his car. He will now appear at Pretoria Regional Court on Monday for a procedural extradition hearing.
He was jailed in 2006 for raft of drugs charges which included leading an organised crime gang supplying cocaine and MDMA between 1999 and 2001.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said proceeds from the racket were converted into foreign currency and transported to the Netherlands to fund further drug consignments.
Former award-winning businessman Evans, from Swansea, was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment for drug running, internet cons and other frauds while living the high-life in Miami and Marbella.
One scam involved swindling 115 investors out of £900,000 over an ostrich farm venture.
The notorious crook had been on the run in Holland and Spain before he was jailed at Erlestoke prison, Wiltshire in 2006.
Evans won the Welsh Young Businessman of the Year title in the 1980s for his double-glazing firm in Neath, but when the business later collapsed he turned to a life of crime.
When he and his wife Esther, the mother of his two children, were first charged Evans skipped bail, faxing Swansea Crown Court to say he would not be turning up and ran off with a mistress to Spain.
It was there he became involved in a drugs conspiracy for which members of his gang were later jailed for more than 50 years.
His wife was given a suspended sentence for the ostrich farm scam because she had to bring up their two children alone.
Evans was eventually caught when he tried to use a false passport under the name of Paul Kelly to enter the US in November 2001.
Heightened security following the September 11 attacks led to him being stopped at JFK Airport.
In April this year the NCA listed Evans, believed to be in Cyprus at the time, on their list of the UK’s most wanted criminals and an international manhunt was launched.
Hank Cole, Head of International Operations at the agency, said: “The exceptional level of collaboration and intelligence sharing with the South African Police Service led to the capture of Evans. “This arrest shows the NCA and its partners will pursue fugitives wherever they are in the world. They can run but they can’t hide. We have the capability to track them down and bring them to justice.”
