Mafia boss a suicide, Italian police say

A man identified as Gaetano Lo Presti was escorted by police in Palermo on Tuesday. (Associated Press)

ROME - An alleged Mafia boss who was caught on wiretaps purportedly discussing Cosa Nostra's new hierarchy hanged himself in a Sicilian jail hours after his arrest, police said yesterday. State radio said he used his belt.

Authorities had arrested some 90 Mafia suspects in raids Tuesday to prevent what they said were the Sicilian mob's efforts to rebuild itself after the arrests of several top fugitives left the syndicate's leadership in disarray.

Carabinieri paramilitary police in Palermo said Gaetano Lo Presti, 52, hanged himself in his cell in a Palermo jail Tuesday evening. Police said they couldn't talk about the details because the suicide was under investigation and an autopsy was planned. Investigators believe Lo Presti headed a Mafia clan in Palermo's Porta Nuova district, Palermo police said.

The capture of top fugitives in recent years, some after years or decades on the run, has weakened Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mob. Also threatening its psychological and economic hold on the Mediterranean island has been a spreading rebellion by Sicilian businessmen who are refusing to pay "protection money" to Mafia henchmen.

Authorities say they ordered Tuesday's raids to head off a bloody power struggle among rival mob bosses as the crime syndicate was being rebuilt. State TV reported that investigators believed Lo Presti was planning to kill off supporters of a rival whom he didn't want to see rise to the top of Cosa Nostra.

National anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso indicated that wiretapped conversations had helped investigators uncover Lo Presti's strategy. Grasso noted that some of those alleged Mafia figures arrested Tuesday had been convicted two decades ago in Palermo's "maxi-trial" of hundreds of mobsters, served long sentences and then resumed criminal activity.

ASSOCIATED PRESS