Italy's reputed No. 1 Mafia boss, Bernardo Provenzano, was captured without resistance yesterday at a farmhouse near Corleone, Sicily, a Cosa Nostra power base, after more than 40 years on the run, police and the Interior Ministry said.
Provenzano, Italy's most wanted man, is believed to have taken over the Sicilian Mafia after the 1993 arrest of former boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina in Palermo.
Police had arrested "the man who, after the arrest of Toto Riina, is considered the most important person from Cosa Nostra," Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano said. He described the development as "an important step forward ... for the entire nation."
"Bastard! Murderer," a crowd shouted as black-hooded policemen took the elderly Provenzano out of a sedan and rushed him into the courtyard of a police building in Palermo after his transfer from the countryside.
Provenzano, his hair gray and wearing a windbreaker and tinted glasses, glanced to the side at one point but made no audible comment.
Italy's top anti-mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso, who for years as Palermo's chief prosecutor had personally led the hunt for Provenzano, said on RAI radio that he felt "great satisfaction, great emotion" at the arrest.
A spokesman for the Palermo police, Agent Daniele Macaluso, said Provenzano was arrested in the morning near Corleone, 59km south of Palermo.
Provenzano has proven an elusive target.
Investigators have said they believe Provenzano has spent most of his years as a fugitive moving from house to house across Sicily, thanks largely to the help of Sicilians' reluctance to inform authorities.
Authorities even tracked the alleged mobster to a clinic in Marseille, France, where he apparently had prostate surgery, and showed a composite to clinic personnel.
As recently as last month, Provenzano's former lawyer was quoted as telling an Italian newspaper that the man was dead.
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