Fugitive Mafia godfather's family arrested in Italy
Palermo (Italy) (AFP) - Italian police on Friday issued 30 arrest warrants for suspects linked to Matteo Messina Denaro, the fugitive head of the Sicilian Mafia, including a sister who allegedly ran the criminal business on his behalf.
Police said they had arrested some of the suspects in raids in the region around Trapani in western Sicily, which is Messina Denaro's power base.
Those arrested included two justice ministry employees accused of helping a firm linked to Messina Denaro win a contract to install security systems in a Palermo prison where many mafia bosses are held.
Three of Messina Denaro's cousins and a nephew were also targeted in the operation.
Police said in a statement the arrests were a "tough blow" to the network behind the mafia boss.
Messina Denaro, 51, who has been on the run for many years, was once a trigger man who reportedly boasted he could "fill a cemetery" with his victims. The only known photos of him date back to the early 1990s.
He is believed to be the successor of the godfathers Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who are both serving life sentences, but less is known about him.
The police said that his sister, Patrizia, was in constant contact with Messina Denaro and imparted orders on his behalf, as well as extorting money.
"I don't think we have ever come so close to Matteo Messina Denaro as we did today," said Mario Parente, the police commander in charge of the operation.
In one excerpt from a police wiretap, investigators said, Messina Denaro's uncle is heard saying: "He commands all of Palermo, all of Sicily, from Trapani."
The suspects arrested "had put in place a complex system of companies that gave them a virtual monopoly in the construction sector," the police said.
The criminal organisation won tenders to build wind farms, industrial areas, roads and restaurants.
Another person arrested was the official intermediary between Messina Denaro and other Sicilian mafia clans.
Parente said that another wiretap had revealed that Messina Denaro's support network was under pressure to drum up cash to fund his "difficult" life on the run.
But Antonio Ingroia, a former leading anti-mafia prosecutor, said that Messina Denaro was "well protected by a network that is not just mafia".
"The mafia unfortunately is not in a corner. Following some difficulties, there is now a phase of flowering of criminal financial activities," he said.
