Mafia boss used freakish ‘sheep code’ to communicate with his henchmen

Across the Sicilian provinces of Palermo and Trapani, heavily armed police swooped on several homes to arrest 15 people linked to the last of the great fugitive Mafia godfathers Matteo Messina Denaro.

Italian authorities say well-known former mafia lieutenant Vito Gondola, 77, who was apprehended on Monday, was responsible for communicating the arrival of a new message from Denaro to the Sicilian Mafia, known as the Cosa Nostra, Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported.

Police in Sicily arrested 11 suspected mobsters they believe were helping Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro evade capture and spread his orders to the rest of the criminal organisation. The Telegraph reports the scraps of paper contained instructions for Denaro’s henchmen as well as personal messages for his female flames.

‘I’ve put the ricotta cheese aside for you, will you come by later?’ he would say on the telephone – a phrase investigators said had nothing to do with dairy products.

“The sheep need shearing”, “The shears need sharpening” and “The hay is ready” were among the messages passed between mafiosi, police say.

Australian Federal Police intelligence backed by Italian police information uncovered through previous raids more than a year ago, have confirmed the link between Cosa Nostra operations and the multi-billion dollar movement of drugs across Europe and to Australia by a cell of Australian Balkan and Italian dual nationals. In 2002 Denaro received a life sentence in absentia for terrorist bombings in Rome, Florence and Milan in 1993 that targeted anti-mafia investigators. Investigators say Gondola talks in one conversation about how Denaro’s authority was being eroded by the new generation of criminals and that the “vecchia (old-school) mafia” had to come to his rescue. Teresa Principato, an Italian prosecutor coordinating the investigation, told the Telegraph: “Despite heavy surveillance of the territory and years of sting operations, we still haven’t been able to get him”.

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took to his facebook page to thank those who led the investigation, while Interior Minister Angelino Alfano announced via Twitter that “the state wins, the mafia loses”.

After World War II, Cosa Nostra enjoyed a resurgence fuelled by smuggling and racketeering until in-fighting and a government crackdown in the wake of some high profile assassinations and child kidnappings sent its leaders underground. “Italy is united against organised crime”.

Three of the men arrested were older than 70. It has become more horizontal.