Italy Police Arrest Mafia’s Alleged New Mob Boss in Sicily

Reuters
12/4/2018
Updated:
12/4/2018

PALERMO, Italy—Italian police have arrested the suspected new head of the Sicilian mafia and 45 other alleged mobsters in a major blow to organized crime on the Mediterranean island, the government said on Dec. 4.

“There is no more room for this type of scum in Italy,” Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Instagram.

The previous boss of bosses, Salvatore “Toto” Riina, died in prison last year after spending almost a quarter of a century behind bars for ordering dozens of murders, including those of two of Italy’s most celebrated anti-mob prosecutors.

Among those arrested on Dec. 4 was Settimo Mineo, an 80-year-old jeweler suspected of heading local mafia families in the Sicilian capital Palermo and of being promoted to lead the whole crime group in May, police said.

“The arrests ... represent one of the biggest blows inflicted on the mafia by the state. Mineo had been elected ‘heir’ of Toto Riina after his death,” Di Maio added.

Settimino Mineo (C), jeweler and new head of the Sicilian mafia, is escorted by carabinieri as he exits a police station after his arrest, in Palermo, Italy, on Dec. 4, 2018. (Alessandro Fucarini/AFP/Getty Images)
Settimino Mineo (C), jeweler and new head of the Sicilian mafia, is escorted by carabinieri as he exits a police station after his arrest, in Palermo, Italy, on Dec. 4, 2018. (Alessandro Fucarini/AFP/Getty Images)

A police source said Mineo was elected boss at a meeting of provincial leaders of the Sicilian mafia, known as ‘Cosa Nostra’ (Our Thing), on May 29. It was believed to be the first such gathering of mob families for more than 25 years.

Once all-powerful on Sicily, the world’s most famous crime gang has been squeezed over the past two decades, with many bosses put behind bars, businesses sequestered and locals increasingly ready to defy it.

The meeting in May of the Cosa Nostra cupola, or hierarchy, was seen by investigators as a sign the group was looking to rebuild.

“With an extraordinary operation in the Palermo province, the police have dismantled Cosa Nostra’s new ‘cupola’,” Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said on Twitter.

Mineo was sentenced to five years in jail for mafia-related crimes at the so-called “maxi-trial” that ran from 1986-1992 and was spearheaded by prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Both Falcone and Borsellino were murdered in 1992 on Riina’s orders after verdicts were delivered. Following their deaths, the state poured resources into the fight against the mob and ground down Cosa Nostra.

One prominent mafioso the police have been unable to capture is Matteo Messina Denaro, nicknamed “Diabolik”, who has been on the run since 1993 and comes from the province of Trapani in western Sicily. It was not clear if he attended the May meeting.

By Wladimir Pantaleone