Story highlights Italian Prime Minister hails arrests, says Italy "is here, all together and united,...

1. 11 Mafia suspects arrested
Story highlights Italian Prime Minister hails arrests, says Italy "is here, all together and united,
against organized crime"Investigators say the suspects passed on notes from alleged Mafia boss
Matteo Messina DenaroThey met in remote spots and used coded language in an attempt to evade
detection, police sayBut Italian authorities say they have struck a blow against the secret network,
with the arrests in Sicily of 11 people they accuse of being Mafia members.
Among them are those with no criminal records and little to suggest a connection with organized
crime, including a shepherd, the owner of a dairy farm, a truck driver and a surveyor.
According to police in the Sicilian capital of Palermo and the anti-mafia department, these suspects
were part of a "men of honor" structure that since 2012 had allowed Messina Denaro to relay his
orders and stay in charge.
They'd meet clandestinely in remote countryside locations to hand over the boss' letters, or "pizzini,"
using carefully coded language when they spoke to avoid detection, a police statement said.
Will Mafia ever loosen its grip on Italy?
Bank accounts scrutinized The pizzini -- little pieces of paper wrapped in tape and destroyed after
reading -- were delivered only every three months in a bid to escape the attention of investigators
and prevent them tracking the origin of the notes, police said.
Police interceptions revealed that the "postmen" for the boss used a kind of coded farmer's language
to conceal their meanings, referring to "sheep to shear," "vegetables to harvest," or "ricotta cheese"
that needed to be collected.
The mail exchanges were carried out in open countryside because the noise made police wiretapping
more difficult.
But despite such precautions, the net appears to be closing in on Messina Denaro.
Another 18 people were seized as part of the same police operation.
Other financial investigations are underway in Swiss banks regarding bank accounts that
investigators suspect have been used to finance Messina Denaro's life on the lam.
At a news conference Monday in Palermo, Procurator Teresa Principato said investigations into
Messina Denaro continue and are now focused on finding whoever has been shielding him since he
went on the run in 1993.
"It's clear that he has very, very important protections," Principato said. If he wasn't protected at a
high level, she added, "it wouldn't be possible for him to be still be a fugitive after so many years"
during which the Cosa Nostra's sometimes deadly operations have continued.

2. Italian columnist and mafia expert Francesco La Licata wrote Tuesday in the national daily La
Stampa that Messina Denaro is the last of the Mafia bosses on the run for whom "it's worth the
hunt," in terms of the huge "human and economic resources" needed.
Suspects in their 70sThose arrested include 77-year-old farmer Vito Gondola, who had previous
convictions, the police statement said. He's accused of being the Mafia head in the Mazzara del Vallo
district and having had a pivotal role in the delivery of Messina Denaro's messages, coordinating
times and methods of delivery.
Others detained are 77-year-old Pietro Giambalvo, allegedly a member of the Mafia clan of Santa
Ninfa who met with Gondola, and Leonardo Agueci, a 27-year-old accountant with no criminal record
who's described by police as a loyal person used to relay communications between bosses.
Police accounts of the notes passed between Messina Denaro and his alleged network may ring a
bell with Mafia watchers.
In 2006, investigators swooped on then-
Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano -- on
the run since 1963 -- capturing him
without a struggle near his Sicilian
hometown, the village of Corleone, the
same made famous by author Mario
Puzo in "The Godfather."
Then aged 73, Provenzano was accused
by authorities of having run the Cosa
Nostra with an iron fist since taking
charge. His modus operandi? Orders
passed to underlings through precise,
tightly-folded paper notes.
Prime Minister: Let's capture the top bossThe latest moves against those with suspected Mafia
connections come amid an apparent determination to crack down on organized crime in Italy.
In a post on his official Facebook page, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi thanked all those
involved for "the blow inflicted to the Mafia organization" through the arrests.
"Let's now move on to finally capture the super boss on the run. Italy is here, all together and united,
against organized crime," he said.
In March, Italian President Sergio Mattarella told CNN's Christiane Amanpour how his own brother
had been murdered at the hands of the Mafia more than three decades ago.
"In all these years I've always tried to emphasize and to promote the need to combat the Mafia," he
said. "Because it is a cancer which is oppressive and which stifles everybody's freedom and reduces
the possibility for the areas in which it's present to prosper and to develop."

3. Speaking in Turin in June, Pope Francis also urged his audience to fight back against organized
crime and corruption.
"We say 'no' to corruption that is so widespread that it seems to be an attitude, normal behavior," he
said. "But not in words, rather in deeds. We say 'no' to Mafia collusion, fraud, bribes, and the like."
10 things to know before visiting Sicily
CNN's Livia Borghese reported from Rome and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.
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