Anti-Mafia squad tries to crack 'Provenzano' code

ROME - Scores of tiny messages found by police may be the key to uncovering the secrets of the Mafia's "boss of bosses" following his arrest last week in Sicily.

But Bernardo Provenzano, who spent 43 years on the run, did a good job keeping his most secret messages, well, secret.

National anti-Mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso told reporters today that police "cryptologists" were still trying to make sense of the most interesting "pizzini" -- or notes -- found inside Provenzano's hideout.

Some of the notes, which Provenzano used to communicate with accomplices, were just a scramble of numbers which investigators think may refer to people.

"We'll decrypt the numbers," said Grasso. "There are great code breakers and we'll try to sort out the problem."

Provenzano also left messages inside a bible, which had passages underlined. Grasso said investigators had not ruled out that the bible itself may be a key to decoding the messages.

Grasso, who has accused businessmen, politicians and other professionals of shielding Provenzano, warned that the notes could be vague and would unlikely name any well-known public figures in his network of collaborators.

"I don't think that Provenzano wrote down the names of any politicians on those notes, at the most there were intermediaries," he told a group of foreign reporters.

"Because the phrase might be, 'I already contacted that person who should talk to a friend to resolve your problem'."

Provenzano was found holed up at a farmhouse outside of his hometown of Corleone after police tracked a care package sent by his wife.

Grasso said Provenzano had still been the undisputed head of Cosa Nostra mob when he was arrested.

He added the sudden decapitation of the Mafia had left it in a moment of "paralysis and crisis".

But he doubted that Provenzano had already been replaced.

A leading anti-Mafia magistrate, Antonio Ingroia, has mentioned two possible successors, Salvatore Lo Piccolo and Matteo Messina Denaro, who have both been on the run for more than a decade.

Flown out of Sicily to a maximum security prison near Terni in central Italy, Provenzano is expected to be questioned on Thursday by prosecutors.

Grasso reiterated doubts that Provenzano will be very forthcoming.

"I don't think anything will come out of it," Grasso said.

- REUTERS