Oct 02 2008
Police re-arrest son of jailed Mafia boss
Palermo — Police in the Sicilian city of Palermo on Thursday re-arrested Matteo La Barbera, son of Mafia boss Michelangelo La Barbera, who is serving a life sentence.
Matteo La Barbera is accused of having helped jailed Mafia bosses Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo remain on the run by providing them with logistical support.
He was arrested in August 2007 and imprisoned until May this year over the purchase of a bakery with laundered Mafia money that was traced to his father Michelangelo.
The authorities had been on the point of releasing Matteo La Barbera in February, when magistrates issues him with another preventative custody order for aiding and abetting the Lo Piccolos and Mafia turncoat Francesco Franzese.
He was released in May on a technicality.
Salvatore Lo Piccolo and his son Sandro were arrested last November as they attended a Mafia ’summit’ in a villa outside Palermo. They had featured on a list of Italy’s 30 ‘most wanted’ men.
Salvatore, in his 60s, had been on the run since 1998 and is believed to have been jailed Mafia ‘boss of bosses’ Bernardo Provenzano’s right-hand man.
Provenzano was captured in a hideout in a derelict farm building in his hometown of Corleone, Sicily in April 2006. He had been a fugitive for more than 40 years.
The Berlusconi government has vowed to eradicate all organised crime in Italy, including the Sicilian Mafia, the Naples Camorra and Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta.
Police re-arrest son of jailed Mafia boss - 2 Oct. 2008 - AKI - This story was found at: http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2532014124
