Silence Is Not Golden

IT WAS THE BIGGEST ROUNDUP SINCE 1984 AND SIGnaled an important new strategy after decades of fruitless efforts to outfight the Mafia conventionally. Using evidence supplied by the crime syndicate's own members, Italian police arrested 90 suspected members of the Sicilian Mob. Three members of Italy's Parliament and several small-town mayors were among those nabbed.

The first and most famous Mafia turncoat, Tommaso Buscetta, was brought back to Italy from the U.S.,where he has lived since his testimony in the 1986-87 "maxi-trial" helped convict 338 mafiosi. Buscetta told the national Anti- Mafia Commission what many Italians have long suspected: that the Cosa Nostra controls many of the country's politicians. He claimed that the current campaign of arrests had decimated the Mafia and persuaded many to break the code of silence known as omerta. National police chief Vincenzo Parisi promised that squealers will get a new home -- outside Italy.