Symbol copyright AFP Image caption Settimo Mineo has been a senior mafioso for decades
Italian police have arrested the person stated to be the new head of the Sicilian Mafia, at the side of FORTY FIVE associates.
The daybreak raid in Palermo netted 80-yr-antique jeweller Settimo Mineo. He used to be reportedly elected Cosa Nostra godfather at a Mafia assembly in May.
Italian media describe him as the successor to Toto Riina, who died in prison a 12 months ago.
The Mafia suspects are accused of extortion, firearms offences, arson and other crimes.
The Sicilian Mafia – the Cosa Nostra – managed to rebuild its leadership, identified as the Cupola, after it had no longer met for years, stories say.
Symbol copyright Getty Images Image caption The raid is seen as an important luck for Italy’s police
‘I fell from the clouds’
Cosa Nostra was once lengthy handicapped by the truth that Toto Riina was once in jail, but when he died the Mafia moved to rebuild the cupola with out taking orders from a “godfather”.
On Instagram, Deputy Top Minister Luigi Di Maio said “there’s no more room for this type of scum in Italy”.
Riina used to be infamous for his brutality. In 1992 top prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, have been blown up in Mafia hits. Six months later Riina used to be arrested.
Italian day-to-day newspaper Los Angeles Repubblica says Settimo Mineo was arrested on Falcone’s orders in 1984, and told his interrogators: “i do not recognise who you’re talking approximately, I fell from the clouds.”
