Italy's No. 1 Mafia boss arrested near Corleone, Sicily

ROME -- Italy's reputed No. 1 Mafia boss was arrested Tuesday at a farmhouse in the Sicilian countryside after frustrating investigators' efforts to catch him during more than 40 years on the run, the Interior Ministry said.

Bernardo 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.

Palermo police spokesman, Agent Daniele Macaluso, said Provenzano had been arrested during the morning near Corleone, the Sicilian town made famous in the "Godfather" movies. He was being driven back to Palermo, 37 miles north of Corleone.

Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano described Provenzano as "the most important person from Cosa Nostra" after Riina.

The arrested was "an important step forward ... for the entire nation."

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.

Provenzano, on the run since 1963, 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.

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

"I think he's dead, and has been dead for several years," Salvatore Traina was quoted as telling the Rome-based daily La Repubblica. "They have looked for him everywhere, they have looked intensely for years but they can't find him. This must mean something."