Italian police arrest Mafia's alleged new mob boss in Sicily
talian police have arrested 46 suspected mobsters in a largescale crackdown on the notorious Sicilian Mafia, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Tuesday. In addition, law enforcement was able to catch another 45 members of the "Cosa Nostra".
It should be noted that the last time the mafia was going through a hard period of reorganization that is associated with a long absence of rigid centralized management. He was reportedly elected Cosa Nostra godfather at a Mafia meeting in May. "Mineo had been elected "heir" of Toto Riina after his death", Di Maio added. Salvini said in a tweet that it had "dismantled the new "cupola" of Cosa Nostra".
The Sicilian Mafia, commonly known as the Cosa Nostra, was formed in the 19 century and continues to be involved in various forms of organised crime, ranging from firearm trafficking, racketeering, extortion and armed robbery. It was long handicapped by the fact that Toto Riina was in jail, but when he died the Mafia moved to rebuild the cupola without taking orders from a "godfather".
Palermo prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi recalled that Mineo had already served a lengthy prison sentence for Mafia association and other crimes after he was swept up in the maxi-trials against the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s and 90s. Six months later Riina was arrested.
He is understood to have survived an assassination attempt in 1982, but two of his brothers were the victim of mob murders.
One of the magistrates that would later be murdered, Giovanni Falcone, had ordered Mineo arrested in 1984 on various organized crime charges.
Mineo was jailed for five years in a big Mafia trial based on the Falcone investigation. Riina was arrested six months later.
Mineo was again arrested on mob-related charges in 2006 and was released previous year. A well-known "pentito" (police informer), Tommaso Buscetta, is reported to have provided intelligence about him.
