![Click to enlarge Rosario Allegra arrest](/image/s23/463277/fa187541fd774b157b33553d61a749.jpg)
Twenty-one people were arrested in towns near the Sicilian city of Trapani where Denaro's criminal empire is based, as part of the "Year Zero" police investigation that allowed authorities to uncover a system of paper notes, or "pizzini", that Denaro uses to give orders to his most faithful associates.
Those include brothers-in-law Gaspare Como and Rosario Allegra, both in custody, who allegedly manage their boss's most important affairs.
"The Trapani Mafia is (securely) in the hands of fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro and we can say that because its most important members are his own family," said Pasquale Angelosanto, head of the Italian carabinieri's ROS special investigative unit.
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