The counterfeit Croatian passport, issued in the name of Vlado Prelcec, is believed to be one of the 900 or so passports that were stolen in the Croatian Consulate in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar in 1999.
The passport is believed to have been forged by Franjo Katavic, who is being investigated by a Zagreb court after he admitted to falsifying passports for Petrac and the most wanted Croatian fugitive, General Ante Gotovina.
The source close to the Ministry of the Interior, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Petrac was arrested after staying at the hotel Park Rhodos on the Greek island of Rhodos. The ministry sent copies of Petrac's fingerprints to the Greece police after they reported to have seen a person with a fake passport who might be Petrac.
Petrac was apparently also recognised by a hotel receptionist who had seen his picture on Interpol's wanted persons notice.
The Greek police had information that Petrac was planning to travel to Ancona, and early Wednesday morning they caught him in the port of Igoumenitsa on the Superfast V ferry that was bound for the Italian port.
The source said that Petrac's travelling companions, Stjepan Hucika and Stjepan Juricko, had proper passports and did not have criminal records in Croatia.
Petrac fled Croatia in February 2004 after the kidnapping of General Vladimir Zagorec's teenage soon. A year later the Zagreb County Court said that Petrac had masterminded the abduction and sentenced him in absence to six years' imprisonment.
Petrac has also been cited as a member of a network of supporters of General Gotovina, who is wanted by the Hague tribunal on war crimes charges. Gotovina has been in hiding since July 2001 when the tribunal indicted him for crimes committed against Serb insurgents during a Croatian military operation codenamed Storm in the summer of 1995.