The Godfather is arrested

Eighty-year-old jeweller Settimo MIneo, the new head of The Costa Nostra – The Sicilian Mafia in the Sicilian capital Palermo,  who was reportedly elected as Costa Nostra godfather at a Mafia meeting May was arrested by Italian police along with 45 associates.

Italian media describe him as the successor to Toto Riina, who died in jail a year ago.

The Mafia suspects are accused of extortion, firearms offences, arson and other organised crimes.

The Sicilian Mafia- The Costa Nostra-,managed to rebuild its leadership, known as the Cupola, after it had met for years. The Godfather is also known as the “capo dei capi” or the boss of bosses.

Italy’s interior minster Matteo Salvini tweeted that was an extraordinary intervention by the Carabinieri ( the paramilitary police), who have dismantled the new “cupola of Costa Nostra”.

Riina (87) who is believed to have ordered over 150 murders was notorious for his brutality in 1992 two leading prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were blown up in Mafia hits. Six months later Riina was arrested. Rina led the Corleone crime family and had become notorious for a killing spree in the 1980s and 1990s. Mineo  named by Italian media as a “ life-long mobster who never used mobile phones and is understood to have survived an assassination attempt in 1982, but two of his brothers were victim of mob murders.