Italy’s most-wanted mafia arrested
Italy’s most-wanted mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been arrested in Sicily after 30 years on the run.
State media reported that Denaro, who was the boss of the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia, was detained in a private clinic in Sicily’s capital Palermo where he was receiving treatment before he was taken to a secret location by the Carabinieri, Italy’s Armed forces who were in their hundreds ready to arrest Denaro.
A video circulated by Italian media shows people standing in the street and applauding the Italian police as Messina Denaro is led away.
VIDEO. People clapping and cheering Carabinieri police in the streets of Palermo after the arrest of Italy’s top mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro after 30 years on the run – @repubblica pic.twitter.com/W6ptsXu7lL
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) January 16, 2023
Denaro was tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia in 2002 over numerous murders. These include the 1992 killing of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the deadly 1993 bomb attacks in Milan, Florence, and Rome, and the kidnapping, torture, and killing of the 11-year-old son of a mafioso turned state witness.
Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most wanted mafia boss, being led out of the Palermo health clinic where he was arrested this morning after 30 years on the run pic.twitter.com/oeKIBvR8XN
— Tom Kington (@tomkington) January 16, 2023
The mafia boss also oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money laundering, and drug trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate. He was reportedly the protege of Totò Riina, the head of the Corleone clan, who was arrested in 1993 after 23 years on the run.
Although he had been a fugitive since 1993, he was thought to be issuing orders to his subordinates from various secret locations. Over the decades, Italian investigators often came close to catching Messina Denaro by monitoring those closest to him. This resulted in the arrest of his sister Patrizia and several other of his associates in 2013. Police also seized valuable businesses linked to Messina Denaro, leaving him increasingly isolated.
However, few photos of Messina Denaro existed, and police had to rely on digital composites to reconstruct his appearance decades after he went on the run. A recording of his voice was not released until 2021.
Tributes to the work of the armed forces are pouring in from across the political spectrum. Gian Carlo Caselli, a judge, and former prosecutor general said that the arrest of Messina Denaro is an “exceptional… simply historical event that might lead to significant developments in the ongoing inquiries into the 1993 bomb attacks that killed ten people across Italy.”
Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni thanked the armed forces for detaining the most crucial member of the mafia criminal group. He said, “This is a great victory for the state.”
BBC/P.A
