The arrest of Matteo Messina is still strong.

After he managed for 30 years to avoid capture as he continued to run many of the mafia's tasks, he was arrested at a clinic in Palermo on Monday, where he was being treated with chemotherapy. On Tuesday he was sent to a maximum security prison, yet his capture is not expected to bring about the disappearance of Cosa Nostra, thanks to the root and rules of the criminal group more than a century.

“What will happen in detail, we cannot know”, Palermos Attorney General Lia Sava said about state radio, regarding the future of the mafia.

But one thing is certain. Cosa Nostra consists of rules. It has been based on these rules for 150 years, so it will certainly set them in motion to repair the damage and thus create the new governing structure needed after the arrest of”, Sava said.

Although Messina Denaro had great influence on the mafia, for decades Cosa Nostra lacked a “supreme leader”, investigators said.

The virtually mythic figure of a <x0bos on the bosses” ended in 1993, with the arrest in Palermo, of Salvatore “TO” Riina's, who had been one of the most wanted persons in Italy for 23 years.

According to judicial evidence leading to his conviction for many murders, including the 1992 bombings, during which the two leading prosecutors of Italian anti-mafia were killed, Toto Riina was at the helm of what was known as “commission” Cosa Nostra's, who ran illegal businesses and had drafted a bloody revenge strategy against the state, in response to the crackdown on the criminal group.

“After Riina has never had an absolute boss”, said Rome Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, who took office last year after serving as chief prosecutor of Palermo, helping co-ordinate the capture of Messina Denaros.

Even if the image of “bos on the bosses” continues to exist, Messina Denaro would not have qualified because he came from Castelvetrano, the western end of Sicily and not from Palermo or surrounding villages, Mr. Lo Voi noted, citing the rules of Kosa Nostra.

However, Messina Denaro, son of a crime boss, “was one of the most important bosses and was linked to other criminal organisations in Italy and abroad”, said Mr. Lo Voi of the Associated Press Agency.

This is why his arrest certainly represents an earthquake at this moment for Cosa Nostra-n”, Lo Voi said.

What has raised Messina Denaro's image within the criminal group was his strong record as a clan chief with an impact on a large part of western Sicily, said Mr. Lo Voi.

Messina Denaro was transported on a military plane Tuesday to the high-security prison in L'Aquila, where strict rules for leading bosses of criminal organisations that do not cooperate with authorities include extremely limited privileges for visitors.

Italian anti-mafia national prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said that the final location behind the Mesina Denaro bars will not change the strategy Cosa Nostra has been tracking for more than a decade.

This “strategy is no longer a strategy of violence” against the state, Mr. Melillo said on state television Monday evening, referring to the 1992 bombings, which killed Palermos prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borselino, as well as the 1993 bombings against Roman churches, part of the mafia attempt to force the state to give up the Cosa Nostra crackdown.

By contrast, Cosa Nostra is guarding low profiles, choosing to penetrate Italy's social and economic structures, Melillo said. / VOA