Italian police catch mafia's 'Mr Big'

Police in Italy were today celebrating the arrest of a key Mafia leader tipped to become the syndicate’s next “boss of bosses.”

Salvatore Lo Piccolo, convicted of murder and on the run since 1998, was caught in a morning raid near Sicily’s capital Palermo.

Lo Piccolo’s son Sandro, another top mob figure, and two men accused of being local bosses also were arrested.

Investigators believe Lo Piccolo could have emerged as the Mafia’s new overall head after Bernardo Provenzano, the reputed number one of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, was held in Corleone in April last year.

“After the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano, it was the turn of the Lo Piccolos,” Palermo Police Chief Giuseppe Caruso said.

“We were on the trail of the bosses for a long time, and this is a great result.”

Lo Piccolo, who is in his ’60s, was said to be vying for leadership with another fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, a younger boss from western Sicily who some considered the Mafia’s number two man.

Denaro has been on Italy’s wanted list since 1993 for murder and other crimes.

“Salvatore Lo Piccolo was the only one capable of carrying on Provenzano’s legacy,” Piero Grasso, Italy’s national anti-Mafia prosecutor, said.

“He was at the head of Cosa Nostra in Palermo and was attempting to climb to the top of the organisation.”