52 arrested in Sicily Mafia crackdown

Grasso told Italian news agency Ansa that the investigation had uncovered evidence "linking Mafia cells with businessmen and politicians," including a list of candidates in recent elections whom the crime group deemed "reliable."

"The leaders of 13 Mafia families were arrested," Grasso said, adding that the operation -- code-named "Gotha" -- was the result of a long investigation which enabled police to "piece together the current organizational chart of Palermo's Mafia association."

The 52 arrest warrants were issued by anti-Mafia investigative judges for extortion and participating in Mafia-linked associations.

Investigators relied on numerous secretly recorded conversations between alleged Mafia bosses that took place inside a garage in Palermo used as a meeting place.

Also used as evidence were documents, later decoded, found among the personal belongings of the Mafia's "boss of bosses" Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested on April 11 after evading capture for more than 40 years.

Investigators said their work had confirmed that Provenzano was, as suspected, the lynchpin figure in the "Cosa Nostra" and that all important decisions passed through him.

"Thanks to modern technology, it was possible to record an impressive number of conversations" that shed light on the structure and organization of the Palermo Mafia's leadership, Grasso said.

"The arrested Mafia bosses all have been convicted in the past for Mafia activities and all served their sentences. Once they got out of prison, they all plunged back in," he said.

Palermo's anti-Mafia unit now has hundreds of hours of intercepted conversation that took place over two years, all recorded in the little hideaway in which the alleged crime bosses "openly and calmly discussed their criminal business."

Having installed a scrambling device, they thought their conversations were protected from police eavesdropping.