Italy arrests 'senior Mafia boss'

Italy arrests 'senior Mafia boss'

Italian police have arrested the reputed new boss of the Sicilian Mafia.

Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who had been at large for 20 years, was apprehended along with his son and two other men near the Sicilian capital, Palermo.

All four men were among Italy's top 30 most wanted Mafia suspects, police officials said.

Mr Lo Piccolo, 65, is believed to have succeeded the Cosa Nostra Mafia's "boss of bosses", Bernardo Provenzano, after he was arrested last year.

Successors

Officials say those arrested were Mafia chiefs who exercise immense power over the territory they control.

"This is an important arrest and an important day," Leoluca Orlando, the former mayor of Palermo and a Mafia expert who tried to tackle the problem when in office, told the BBC News website.

"Since the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano, the boss of bosses of the so-called Corleonesi Mafia, Salvatore Lo Piccolo was considered the new boss," Mr Orlando said.

Mr Provenzano, who led the Cosa Nostra from the early 1990s, was arrested in April 2006 after being on the run for more than 40 years.

He is being held in isolation at a high security jail in Terni, central Italy.

Mr Lo Piccolo allegedly began as a bodyguard for a Sicilian gangster and worked his way up through the organisation.

After Mr Provenzano's arrest, Mr Lo Piccolo was believed to be among his most likely successors, along with Antonino Rotolo and Matteo Messina Denaro.

Mr Rotolo was arrested in June 2006. Mr Denaro remains at large.

Mr Piccolo's arrest came on the day that Palermo held a day of memory for all victims of the Mafia.