Police arrest Mafia head after 40 years on run

The Italian Interior Ministry has announced the arrest of the head of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than…

The Italian Interior Ministry has announced the arrest of the head of the Sicilian Mafia who has been on the run for more than four decades and was Italy's most wanted man.

Bernardo Provenzano, known as the "Phantom of Corleone" after the hill town in Sicily made famous by the Godfatherfilms, has been running the Mafia since 1993, when former "boss of bosses" Toto Riina was arrested in the Sicilian capital Palermo.

Provenzano (73), a ruthless member of the Corleonese crime family, has been wanted for decades. The last picture police had of him before his arrest was taken in 1959 when he was 25.

He was arrested in a farmhouse in the countryside near Corleone, according to initial police reports. It was the state's biggest success against the Mafia in more than ten years.

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As recently as last month, Provenzano's former lawyer was quoted as telling an Italian newspaper that the elusive man was dead.