After 23 years on the run, the most wanted fugitive of Italy who was the head of the Sicilian mafia back into the U.S. drug market, was finally put under arrest.

Salvatore Lo Piccolo, 65 years of age and considered the heir to Bernardo Provenzano, the “boss of bosses'', was tracked down by police on Monday in a country house outside Palermo while he was meting with fellow mafia members. He wasn’t the only one the police have managed to put their hand on today, his 32-year-old son Sandro and two other alleged mobsters were detained.

“We severed an important drug link between America and Palermo,'' the city's police Chief Giuseppe Caruso said in a telephone interview.

The major arrest of the “Baron” - Lo Piccolo’s nickname - followed the imprisonment of Bernardo Provenzano, which took place 18 months ago. Authorities believe that after Provenzano was put away, Lo Piccolo and a younger Trapani rival were contenders for the position of head of Cosa Nostra. The internal dispute for power between those two led to many killings.

The four mafia members had probably met to discus a vendetta for Antonino Giambrone, a friend of Lo Piccolo. He was gunned down on Oct. 31 and his death continues a series of murders related by the officials to the internal power struggle.

Italina Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Piero Grasso told ANSA that Lo Piccolo was in fact the only one capable of taking “Provenzano's mantle.”

Speaking about the huge capture of Lo Piccolo, Francesco Forgione, head of the anti-Mafia commission in the Italian parliament, said that the capture of the mafia head marks an extraordinary day for Italian democracy and the anti-Mafia fight.