Matteo Messina Denaro is believed to be the leader of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia. Since 1993, he has been on the run after being condemned in absentia to life in prison for his role in the deaths of anti-mafia prosecutors. In addition, he faces a second life sentence for a series of bombings.
Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted mobster, was apprehended by police after 30 years on the run.
Messina Denaro, who has been on the run since 1993. And is believed to be a leader of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, has been accused of being a mafia boss.
The 60-year-old was held at a private hospital in Palermo, the capital of Sicily.
According to Italy’s Ansa news agency, he had been attending appointments at the hospital for some time. Police had covertly put officers into the building overnight to ensure the protection of other patients.
He is thought to have cancer, according to Italian news outlets.
Italian state television said that Messina Denaro was transported to a secret location shortly after her detention.
Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, commended the police for the arrest and hailed the operation as “a fantastic triumph for the state, proving that it never gives up against the mafia.”
Messina Denaro was given a life sentence for his role in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in 1992.
In addition, he faces a life sentence for his role in the bombings that murdered ten people in Florence, Rome, and Milan the following year.
Last year, authorities reported that despite being on the run, he was still able to give orders about the operation of the mafia in the region surrounding Trapani, his regional stronghold in western Sicily.
In the 1990s, Messina Denaro is also accused of being singularly or jointly responsible for several more deaths.
Prosecutors claim that in 1993, he participated in the kidnapping of Giuseppe Di Matteo. A 12-year-old boy, in an attempt to prevent his father from testifying against the mafia.
Two years were spent holding the youngster captive before he was strangled and his body was destroyed in acid.
Last of three mobsters of the highest rank to be apprehended
Messina Denaro was the last of three high-ranking mobsters who had evaded capture for decades.
His arrest occurred thirty years and one day after the capture of convicted “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina. Who had been on the run for twenty-three years.
The Palermo prosecutor at the time of Riina’s arrest, Gian Carlo Caselli, described the arrest as “exceptional” and “of historical significance.” The fact that the arrest occurred on the anniversary of Riina’s captivity, according to him, made it much more meaningful.
However, he cautioned that Cosa Nostra has already demonstrated the capacity to withstand the arrest of major individuals and reconstitute.
The record for the longest time as a fugitive is held by Bernardo Provenzano. Who was apprehended in a farmhouse outside Corleone, Sicily, in 2006.
Once Provenzano was apprehended, the chase shifted to Messina Denaro. But, despite repeated sightings over the years, he has evaded capture till today.
All three top bosses were ultimately apprehended in the heart of Sicily, with authorities claiming that they relied on the contacts and secrecy of fellow mobsters and complicit family members to move from hideout to hideout, being supplied with food and clean clothing, and evading capture under a code of silence known as “omerta.
