Ailing Mafia Don moved from prison to hospital

Mafia boss Salvatore Riina, once the reputed head of the Sicilian mob, has been transferred from a top-security prison to a hospital intensive care unit.

Riina has been suffering from heart problems, but it was not clear what prompted the transfer, said lawyer Luca Cianferoni.

“I can’t rule out that his condition is life-threatening,” said Cianferoni. “Exams are being done.”

Riina, 73, is serving several life sentences for murder. He was transferred from a prison in Marino del Tronto, in central Italy, to a local hospital.

The reputed “boss of bosses,” Riina was arrested in Palermo in 1993 after two decades as a fugitive. A year earlier, he had ordered the killing of top anti-mob prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in back-to-back bombings in Sicily.

Riina’s heart problems, made worse by obesity, emerged at the beginning of the year, said Cianferoni.