A suspect arrested in a series of high-profile raids on leading Mafia families was found hanged in Palermo’s Pagliarelli prison hours after his arrest, Italian officials said Wednesday. Officials said the man, Gaetano Lo Presti, 52, had hanged himself. The raids in Palermo on Tuesday were staged in an attempt to stop the city’s crime bosses from reorganizing after several years in which they appeared to lack leadership, according to the police. The operation was one of the largest against the Mafia in recent years and included the use of helicopters and dog teams. Dozens of handcuffed suspects were shown in televised news reports being escorted to prison. The police said some suspects remained at large. Prosecutors had accused Mr. Lo Presti of controlling the Mafia families in a Palermo neighborhood. The arrests were the culmination of a nine-month investigation by anti-Mafia prosecutors in Palermo. The charges included association with the Mafia, extortion and arms and drug trafficking.Tuesday's operation, codenamed "Perseus", saw some 90 arrests and was aimed at preventing Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, from forming a new command structure after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano, Riina's succssor as Godfather, in April 2006.On his arrest, Provenzano is said to have passed the leadership of Cosa Nostra to Salvatore Lo Piccolo, a Palermo Mafia boss. However Lo Piccolo was himself arrested in November 2007.Investigators believe this left the way clear for his rival, Matteo Messina Denaro, the ambitious and ruthless Mafia boss in Trapani, to launch a bid for supreme power by reforming the Mafia "board of directors," known as the Commission or the "Cupola" (Dome), which issues instructions to Mafia clans and acts as arbiter in often bloody turf wars.
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