Jun 25 2007
Police in Sicily arrest nine alleged clan bosses in crackdown on Mafia
ROME - Police on Saturday arrested nine suspected Mafia bosses, who authorities feared were plotting to kill small-time thieves poaching on their territory in Sicily, local media reported.
Among those captured in the morning raids by paramilitary Carabinieri police was Tommaso Cannella, the reputed clan boss in the town of Prizzi, near Corleone, the Italian news agency ANSA and state TV reported from Palermo.
Intercepted phone conversations indicated the suspects were angered that criminals outside the Mafia were carrying out thefts on local businesses, Italian TV news reports said, citing investigators.
Businesses across Sicily pay “protection” money to the Cosa Nostra organized crime group - a lucrative extortion racket long established on the island.
In a separate development, ANSA and state TV reported that investigators found a code book to help them decipher combinations of letters and numbers that authorities believe longtime fugitive mob boss Bernardo Provenzano used to communicate with mobsters while he was on the run for more than 40 years.
When Provenzano was captured in a farmhouse outside Corleone in April 2006, investigators said they seized notes along with a typewriter Provenzano used to write the messages, which referred to fellow mobsters by code. Authorities suspect that Provenzano gave orders by written notes because he feared cell phone conversations would be monitored by police.
(AP) - June 23, 2007 - 11:58 am - http://www.news1130.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w062347A
