Salvatore Lo Piccolo - Successor of Provenzano?

Successor of Provenzano?

After the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on April 11, 2006, Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Matteo Messina Denaro were thought to be the new leaders of Cosa Nostra. However, the pizzini (small slips of paper used to communicate with other mafiosi to avoid phone conversations) found at Provenzano's hide-out indicated that Provenzano’s joint deputies in Palermo were Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Antonio Rotolo, capo mandamento of Pagliarelli, a Corleonesi loyalist in the days of Totò Riina. In a message referring to an important decision for Cosa Nostra, Provenzano told Rotolo: "It's up to you, me and Lo Piccolo to decide this thing."

Anti-Mafia prosecutor Antonio Ingroia of the Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA) of Palermo said that it was unlikely that there would be an all-out war over who would fill Provenzano's shoes. "Right now I don't think that's probable," he said. Of the two possible successors, Ingroia thought Lo Piccolo was the more likely heir to the Mafia throne. "He's from Palermo, and that's still the most powerful Mafia stronghold," Ingroia said.

A 'pax mafiosa' initially had settled in after Provenzano's arrest because neither Lo Piccolo nor Matteo Messina Denaro appeared to have sufficient forces to seek control of Cosa Nostra, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Subsequent investigation revealed that Lo Piccolo and Messina Denaro had reached an accommodation and that the real threat to Lo Piccolo came from Rotolo who was arrested in June 2006.

According to ANSA, "police were concerned by a couple of top-level hits they feared might spark a full-blown war of succession. Police said Lo Piccolo had the upper hand because he had been Provenzano's right-hand man in Palermo and his greater experience won him the respect of the older generation of bosses as they pursued Provenzano's policy of keeping as low as possible while strengthening their power network. These bosses had been reined in by Provenzano when he put an end to the Riina-driven war against the state that claimed the lives of Mafia crusaders Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992."