FBI Director to Appeal to Sicilians : Law: In trip to pay homage to slain Italian prosecutors, Freeh will urge rejection of the mob.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, who made his reputation fighting organized crime in New York, will travel to Italy’s Mafia heartland on Sunday to make an unprecedented plea that Sicilians throw off the chains of the criminal syndicate corrupting their society.

Never before has a high-ranking U.S. law enforcement official delivered such a message on Sicilian soil.

Freeh will make his remarks in Palermo at a memorial Mass, after paying homage at the graves of assassinated Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and meeting with their families.

Freeh, who took office three months ago, is going at the urging of Italian magistrates and other officials to help “maintain the momentum they think they have against the major organized crime principals and their families,” he explained in an interview this week.

He said he wanted to help demonstrate to “the young people of Italy, particularly the youth of Sicily, that we’re not afraid anymore, that this is a new day, that the playing field has changed and that the safe havens (for mob figures) have gone from here and over there.”

The trip has personal meaning for Freeh, who developed a close relationship with Falcone, working hand-in-hand on two of the most successful Mafia investigations and trials--the Pizza Connection case in New York and the “maxi-trial” in Italy.

In the Pizza case, named for pizza parlors operated by some of the principals in a massive heroin smuggling and money laundering enterprise, the Sicilian Mafia conspired with leaders of the Bonanno and Gambino families of its U.S. counterpart, La Cosa Nostra.

All but one of 18 defendants were convicted in 1987 and drew lengthy prison sentences and hefty fines.

In the maxi-trial that same year, more than 338 Sicilian Mafiosi, including Salvatore Riina, alleged capo di tutti i capi (boss of bosses), were convicted of crimes ranging from extortion to murder and multimillion-dollar narcotics trafficking.

The success of that prosecution and in breaking the Mafia’s code of silence led to the 1992 assassinations of Falcone and Borsellino, authorities believe.

Riina, who had been convicted in absentia but is now in custody, is among those accused of killing them.

Revulsion over the murders has stirred unprecedented protests against the Mafia by ordinary Sicilians and contributed to momentum in the legal fight against the feared organization.

Palermo elected as its mayor last month the founding leader of a new political party born out of resentment over Mafia killings and explosions.

The intense reaction also spread beyond Sicily, contributing to the already rising resentment over the Mafia’s ties to government and politicians.

Freeh, who normally talks in a Joe Friday-like “Just the facts, ma’am” monotone, edges into a display of emotion when he talks of Falcone and his dedication to the fight against the Mafia.

Falcone, whose wife, a judge, died with him in the attack, lived in a house where the windows had been replaced with sandbags, cutting off natural light.

“He lived like that for 15 years,” Freeh said, his voice dropping. “We have no concept of it, absolutely no concept. What they do under those circumstances is just incredibly heroic; there’s no other word for it.”

Freeh believes that his public appearance in Palermo and that of other American officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Italy Reginald Bartholomew and Ronald K. Noble, assistant Treasury secretary for enforcement, will give Italian authorities “a tremendous sense of support--that we’re willing to go over there and stand in the same foxhole with them.”

Security arrangements for Freeh are known to be extensive and include the personal security detail that travels with the director. But Freeh said he did not regard his trip as a “provocative” act.

In a series of meetings in Rome today, Freeh and Noble will discuss with Italian officials the investigations of the killings and such matters as “the very strong movement to import cocaine from South America to Europe through Mafia associations with Colombian (drug) cartel members,” Freeh said.

“It’s a very powerful and frightening alliance--cocaine now going to Europe and looking to develop new markets in the former Soviet republics and the Eastern European countries,” the FBI director said.

He noted that the Mafia is controlling the partnership “and making incredible amounts of profit. Cocaine in Europe is selling for 400% of its acquisition value in South America--much more than it sells for here.”

Freeh acknowledged that U.S. prosecutors have made progress with convictions of mob bosses across the country. But the work is not done, he said.

“They still constitute a very serious threat,” Freeh said. “If there is any slackening in the effort” that produced those convictions, “there will be a quick reappearance of the disease in a fully matured way.”

He noted that he was speaking as a former FBI agent and prosecutor who has “worked this stuff for a long time.”