Sicilian vespers

He was found dead, hanging by his belt in Palermo8217;s Pagliarelli jail.

He was found dead, hanging by his belt in Palermo8217;s Pagliarelli jail. The apparent suicide of a 52-year-old Sicilian, Gaetano Lo Presti, on December 16th put a grisly end to what investigators claimed was a drive by the Sicilian Mafia to give itself a new leadership. Mr Lo Presti was among 89 alleged mobsters detained in one of the biggest-ever police operations in Sicily. Around 1,200 semi-militarised Carabinieri were deployed in raids there and as an indication of Cosa Nostra8217;s long reach in placid Tuscany. Only five of those wanted by the police eluded capture. 8220;Cosa Nostra is in evident crisis,8221; exulted Italy8217;s chief anti-Mafia prosecutor, Piero Grasso. 8220;It cannot manage to reorganise itself.8221;

In 2006 police seized Bernardo Provenzano, who was thought to have succeeded Salvatore 8220;Toto8221; Riina also known as 8220;Shorty8221; as supreme head of the loose federation that is the Mafia. Two months later, they captured several of Mr Provenzano8217;s alleged lieutenants. Last year they arrested his suspected heir-apparent, Salvatore Lo Piccolo.

The aim of this week8217;s Operation Perseus was to abort a bid by Cosa Nostra8217;s most senior mobsters at large to agree upon a new leader and to reconstitute its governing board. This 8220;provincial commission8221; is not known to have existed since 1993, when Mr Riina disappeared into a high-security jail. The Carabinieri learnt of the plan when they eavesdropped on mob meetings, culminating in a summit last month attended by 31 leading Mafiosi. Other meetings were held in a garage, a dilapidated house and8212;yes8212;a barber8217;s shop. The idea, said one boss, was that 8220;if we have to do something, we all take responsibility.8221; For what? Mr Grasso noted that the role of the provincial commission was to decide on big operations like the war the Mafia waged on the state with bombings and assassinations in the early 1990s.

Several other questions remain unanswered. One is whether Mr Riina was ever truly replaced as Cosa Nostra8217;s boss of bosses; the overheard mobsters appeared to view him as the ultimate authority still. Another is why Mr Lo Presti died. Could he not face the prison regime that awaits Mafia bosses? Or did he fear something else? According to leaks from the investigation, Mr Lo Presti led a faction at odds with the strategy endorsed from jail by the 78-year-old Mr Riina, whose other nickname is 8220;The Beast8221;.

copy; The Economist Newspaper Limited 2008