Big boss of Mafia killed on Sicily street

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A big Mafia boss was gunned down on Monday on street in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, according to Ansa news agency.

Giuseppe Dainotti, 67, was shot in the head by two killers while riding his bike, police said.

According to the police, one of Palermo's top bosses, Dainotti, was released from jail in 2014.

A boss of the Porta Nuova family, Dainotti served his sentence for murder and for a billion-lire (Italian currency before euro) robbery at Palermo's Monte dei Pegni institutional pawnbrokers in 1991.

As Mafia organization Cosa Nostra boss, Dainotti's killing was "symbolic" like the murders 25 years ago of anti-Mafia magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Palermo Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi told reporters on Monday.

"When it is necessary, the Mafia once again shoots in a clear and symbolic way," he said.

Lo Voi said the Dainotti's killing, three days before the Falcone anniversary, "can have various meanings".

Italy sets to mark the 25th anniversary of Falcone's murder with a series of events on Wednesday, while commemorating his friend and colleague Borsellino, who was also murdered in 1992.

Both the anti-Mafia magistrates were blown up by huge bombs. In the case of Falcone, his wife and his police escort were also killed by bombs planted under the Palermo-airport highway at Capaci on May 22 of 1992. Borsellino was killed by a car bomb outside his mother's house in July 1992.

The murders, and the other fatal bombing cases in 1993, led to a strong reaction from the government with arrests of Corleone boss of bosses Toto Riina and his long-time co-boss, the late Bernardo Provenzano.

Lo Voi said Monday that "whenever someone says that the Mafia is no longer there or that it has been defeated, something happens that confirms the Mafia is always there."

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