WORLD BRIEFING / ITALY
Italian police said they have arrested 13 people suspected of helping a top Mafia fugitive hide, communicate with other mobsters and conduct his business.
Investigators said that with the arrests they are closing in on Matteo Messina Denaro, a fugitive who is among a handful of mobsters vying to take over the Sicilian Mafia. Most of the arrests were carried out in Trapani, a city in western Sicily that is the power base of Messina Denaro.
“He’s the last of the great fugitives,” said Giuseppe Linares, the top police official in Trapani. “This operation strikes at his breeding ground and allows us to understand the essential structure” protecting him.
Messina Denaro has been trying to impose his power in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, and become the new head of the Sicilian Mafia, weakened by the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano in April 2006.
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