He has the nickname “Diabolik” and is considered the “most significant” mafia leader in Italy.
His name is Matteo Messina Denaro, and since Monday, January 16, he has been under arrest after 30 years on the run from the authorities.
“Today, January 16, the Carabinieri arrested the fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro at a medical facility in Palermo, where he was heading for therapeutic treatment,” said Pasquale Angelosanto, General of the Carabinieri National Police.
messina denaro considered the leader of the Cosa Nostra group and he has been on the run since the 1990s, when the Sicilian mafia intensified its campaign of killings and attacks in various cities across the country.
For several of these crimes, he was tried and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment.
These include The 1992 assassination of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.the deadly 1993 bombings in Milan, Florence, and Rome; and the kidnapping, torture, and murder of the 11-year-old son of a mobster turned government witness.
“Is great state victory”, – said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“Extremely Dangerous”
It is said that Messina Denaro once boasted that he could “fill the graveyard” with his victims.
At 60, the capo topped the list Italy’s most wanted criminals. He is accused of links with the mafia, multiple murders and the use of explosives.
“An extremely dangerous fugitive,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi described him.
Messina Denaro has been on the run since 1993.but it is believed that he was still issuing orders to his employees from various secret locations.
Capo also oversaw various organized crime activities, including illegal dumping, money laundering, and drug trafficking for Cosa Nostra.
Messina Denaro was reported to have been a protégé Salvatore Riinahead of the Corleone clan, arrested in 1993 after 23 years on the run.
His capture comes one day after the 30th anniversary of Riina’s arrest, who died in 2017.
La Cosa Nostra is a mafia group featured in the mythical The Godfather films.
“Myth” about the mafia
The leader was arrested in a Palermo clinic. For a year, he was treated for colon cancer under an assumed name.
According to the ANSA news agency, he did not resist capture.
Anna Sergi, an expert in criminology at the University of Essex, described Messina Denaro as “the last the strongest and most “clean” remaining Sicilian mafiosi.
“The secrets he is said to be keeping fuel conspiracies around mafia-state deals in the 1990s,” Sergi told AFP.
“He is the quintessence of the great historical power of Cosa Nostra. The myths surrounding his period on the run are one of the reasons why the mafia myth continues to exist.”
State victory over organized crime
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni stated that Messina Denaro was the “most significant” mob boss and that his arrest was a “great victory” for the state in its war on organized crime.
Photos released by police show the kingpin sitting in the back seat of a car. He wears a light-colored hat, sunglasses, and a leather jacket.
Before this picture the oldest known photograph dates from the early 1990s..
Police had to rely on digital reconstructions of his appearance for decades while he was on the run.
During this time, the investigators surrounded him after several your closest associates. This led to the arrest of his sister Patricia and other associates in 2013.
The authorities also seized various businesses associated with Messina Denaro, making it increasingly isolated.
In 2015, police discovered that Messina Denaro had been communicating with his employees through the pizzini system by leaving small folded paper notes under a rock on a Sicilian farm.
Researchers have spent decades recording the homes and businesses of the chief’s prominent allies on the island.
They looked for caches in grottoes, caves, or even bunkers inside buildings where they could be hidden.
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Source: La Opinion
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