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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=blacktable vAlign=top align=left width="100%">4-12-06
The phantom of Corleone - captured after 43 years on the run
ITALY’S reputed No 1 Mafia boss was arrested yesterday at a farmhouse in Sicily after evading capture for more than 40 years.
Bernardo Provenzano, Italy’s most wanted man, is believed to have taken over the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina in Palermo.
Bastard! Murderer!” a crowd shouted as policemen took the elderly man to Palermo.
Police spokesman Daniele Macaluso said Provenzano, known as the ‘Phantom of Corleone’, had been arrested near the Sicilian town made famous in the Godfather films.
Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano described Provenzano as “the most important person from Cosa Nostra” after Riina. He called the arrest “an important step forward... for the entire nation”.
Prosecutors describe Provenzano as a man who helped Cosa Nostra move into the world of public works contracts in Sicily, turning the Mafia into a white-collar industry of illegal activity.
Provenzano, on the run since 1963, proved an elusive target.
He allegedly avoided capture by sleeping in farmhouses on the island and giving orders with written notes, not trusting mobile phones.
Police were also hampered because their last photo of him dated back nearly 50 years.
However, staff at a clinic in France where Provenzano is believed to have been treated under a false name helped police create a composite sketch.
Italy’s top anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso said he felt “great satisfaction, great emotion”.
Last month, Provenzano’s former lawyer told an Italian newspaper he was dead.
“He’s dead, and has been dead for several years,” Salvatore Traina was quoted as telling La Repubblica.
“They have looked for him everywhere... intensely for years but they can’t find him. This must mean something.”
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The phantom of Corleone - captured after 43 years on the run
ITALY’S reputed No 1 Mafia boss was arrested yesterday at a farmhouse in Sicily after evading capture for more than 40 years.
Bernardo Provenzano, Italy’s most wanted man, is believed to have taken over the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina in Palermo.
Bastard! Murderer!” a crowd shouted as policemen took the elderly man to Palermo.
Police spokesman Daniele Macaluso said Provenzano, known as the ‘Phantom of Corleone’, had been arrested near the Sicilian town made famous in the Godfather films.
Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano described Provenzano as “the most important person from Cosa Nostra” after Riina. He called the arrest “an important step forward... for the entire nation”.
Prosecutors describe Provenzano as a man who helped Cosa Nostra move into the world of public works contracts in Sicily, turning the Mafia into a white-collar industry of illegal activity.
Provenzano, on the run since 1963, proved an elusive target.
He allegedly avoided capture by sleeping in farmhouses on the island and giving orders with written notes, not trusting mobile phones.
Police were also hampered because their last photo of him dated back nearly 50 years.
However, staff at a clinic in France where Provenzano is believed to have been treated under a false name helped police create a composite sketch.
Italy’s top anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso said he felt “great satisfaction, great emotion”.
Last month, Provenzano’s former lawyer told an Italian newspaper he was dead.
“He’s dead, and has been dead for several years,” Salvatore Traina was quoted as telling La Repubblica.
“They have looked for him everywhere... intensely for years but they can’t find him. This must mean something.”
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uppy:
