Mafia Boss Matteo Denaro, Italy’s Most Wanted Man, Arrested In Sicily

He had been a fugitive since 1993 and was thought of by Europol some of the needed males in Europe, de Lucia told CNN. Since the 2000s, the Italian police have elevated the number of arrests and seizures of property from the people around him, a strategy of isolation that has taken virtually 20 years to bear fruit, given his extensive help network. He is considered the successor of the nice historical leaders of Cosa Nostra — like Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, who died in jail in 2016 and 2017.

Messina Denaro, who had a power base close to within the western Sicilian port city of Trapani, was thought-about Sicily’s Cosa Nostra prime boss even while a fugitive. He might be positioned behind bars for 2 1992 bombings in Sicily that killed top anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Messina Denaro was seen in a photo released by police wearing a brown leather-based jacket, white skull cap and tinted glasses. He was transported to a secret location by police instantly after his arrest, Italian state television reported.

After 30 Years, Italy Arrests Mafia Boss Messina Denaro At Sicilian Hospital

Riina and Provenzano lived out the final years of their life in the strictest of Italian prison circumstances reserved for unrepentant organized crime bosses, and refused to cooperate with investigators. Among other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat’s young son, who was kidnapped and strangled before his physique was dissolved in a vat of acid. Mr. Messina Denaro was born to a mafia-affiliated family, and his own father died in hiding in 1998. He disappeared from public life on the age of 31, quickly after the arrest of Mr. Riina.

He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for many years eluded seize. Italian mafia chief Matteo Messina Denaro , one of the needed mafia bosses, is seen after he was arrested by Italian security forces in Palermo, Italy, January 16, 2023. Messina Denaro was believed to have enjoyed a more comfy life-style in his a long time hiding from police, leaving some to invest whether he would possibly conform to cooperate with prosecutors in trade for more lenient prison circumstances. The Italian Mafia boss who set the record for the longest time on the lam was Bernardo Provenzano, who was captured in a farmhouse close to Corleone, Sicily, in 2006 after 38 years as a fugitive.

Arrest Attempts And Later Occasions

Other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat’s younger son, who was abducted and strangled before his body was dissolved in a vat of acid. He is the final of Italy’s three most-wanted mafia bosses who eluded seize for decades, per Sky News. Messina Denaro, 60, was apprehended at the clinic the place he was receiving treatment for a medical condition, Carabinieri Gen. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force’s particular operations squad, said in a statement. Messina Denaro became a fugitive on probably the most wished record in 1993; according to Forbes in 2010, he was one of the ten most needed and powerful criminals in the world. With the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and Salvatore Riina in 2017, Messina Denaro was seen because the unchallenged boss of all bosses within the Mafia. He was arrested on 16 January 2023 in a non-public clinic in Sicily’s capital, Palermo.

“We had a clue to the investigation and adopted it via to at present’s arrest,” Palermo prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia mentioned. Messina Denaro, 60, was led away from Palermo’s “La Maddalena” hospital by two uniformed carabinieri police and bundled right into a ready black minivan. He was sporting a brown fur-lined jacket, glasses and a brown and white woolly hat. A police image on Monday showed Mr. Messina Denaro as an older man, with facial features just like his photos at a younger age. Italian news retailers have published video frames of an older man presupposed to be Mr. Messina Denaro touring in a jeep across the Sicilian countryside, in addition to stories of sightings throughout Europe.