Italy Arrests Top Mafia Boss

Pasquale Condello, 57, was captured in a house in Reggio Calabria in the southern tip of mainland Italy, police said.

Italian police have arrested the leader of the powerful Calabrian mafia, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said on Monday.

Pasquale Condello, 57, was captured in a house in Reggio Calabria in the southern tip of mainland Italy, police said. There were no further details of his capture.

Amato said in a statement that Condello was "the number one boss of the 'Ndrangheta", the name of the Calabrian mafia which, largely through drug trafficking, has become far more powerful than the more famous Sicilian mob.

Police called Condello "the Provenzano of Calabria", Amato said, a reference to Bernado Provenzano, the Sicilian "boss of bosses" who was arrested in April 2006.