ITALY: Italy's police arrest Sicilian "boss of bosses"

The man believed to be the mafia's 'boss of bosses', his son and two other mafia bosses are arrested near Palermo. Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who magistrates believe is the Sicilian Mafia's new "boss of bosses", was arrested on Monday (November 5) after nearly a quarter of a century on the run. Lo Piccolo, 65, was arrested with his 32-year-old son, Sandro, and two other Mafia bosses. The four are among the top 30 most wanted Mafia suspects in Italy and were seized in a raid on a country house outside the Sicilian capital Palermo where they were holding a summit. Police fired a few shots during the operation but no one was injured. As he was being arrested, the younger Lo Piccolo told his father: "I love you, Dad," according to local media reports. A crowd of Palermo inhabitants showed their jubilation as the police convoy carrying the arrested mafia boss reached the city police station. Some of them opened bottles of champagne and others shouted: "We (honest people) are the real Sicily". Magistrates believe the elder Lo Piccolo, whose Mafia nickname is "the Baron", took over the reins of the crime organisation after the arrest last year of former "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano. "I believe that we have given a hard hit to a mechanism, based on (Salvatore) Lo Piccolo and on his clan, and we have achieved a decisive victory to free Palermo's economy from much oppression and exploitation." said one of Palermo's prosecutors, Francesco Messineo, during a news conference. After the first police procedure, the four arrested are expected to be flown by helicopter to a maximum security prison probably on the Italian mainland.

ITN Source | November 6, 2007

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