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 were almost certainly organised by Provenzano, though he made sure that Giovanni Brusca, 'the Christian slayer', took the rap.
Still on the run, Riina and Provenzano oversaw the transformation of Sicilian organised crime from traditional fare such as extortion, prostitution, cattle rustling, trucking and building rackets, to becoming major players in international trafficking - anything from drugs to human parts and nuclear waste.
The old ways of the rural Mafia, on which Corleone had built its legend, were gone. Riina and Provenzano linked with the Russian and east European mafias, the Chinese Triads and the cartels of Latin America, allowing them to outstrip in power and wealth even their cousins in New Jersey.
The big change came with the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the
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After the arrest of Riina, Provenzano made the cupola one of the wealthiest multinationals
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Cold War. "They'll move into everything that moves now," Giovanni Falcone had predicted in 1990. "The Mafia will become bigger, more powerful, more international, and less folkloristic and Sicilian."
Provenzano took command of the Corleonesi family after the arrest of Riina (left) in 1993. As head of the cupola, he made it one of the wealthiest multinationals in history.
And yet always he was on the run.
No one knows quite how he kept out of the clutches of the police for so long, but he understood the pitfalls of the cyber age and avoided using mobile phones and email, relying on couriers and short written notes, sometimes put in the garbage or the laundry to be picked up. He even fathered two sons. 
FIRST POSTED APRIL 11, 2006
 Now he’s in jail: what happens next
The role model for American men
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