MADRID: Spanish investigators Thursday probed the death of John McAfee who was found in his prison cell after an apparent suicide following a court decision approving his extradition to the US on tax evasion charges.

The body of the 75-year-old founder of the anti-virus McAfee software was discovered at around 7:00 pm on Wednesday in his cell in the Brians 2 penitentiary near Barcelona in what a prison service spokeswoman said was a death "apparently from suicide".

Catalan legal officials confirmed it was McAfee, who had been held at the facility since his arrest in early October as he was about to board a flight to Istanbul. His body was taken away by judicial officials who opened an investigation to determine the cause of death, a spokeswoman for Catalonia's justice ministry told AFP on Thursday.

McAfee was found dead just hours after a Spanish court said it had approved his extradition to the United States in a decision which could have been appealed.

According to the US extradition request filed in November and quoted in the ruling, McAfee earned more than 10 million euros ($12 million) in 2014-18, but never filed a tax return.