Italy: The most wanted mafia boss in Italy, Mr. Matteo Messina Denaro, who had been hiding out for three decades, has been arrested by the Carabinieri police. Mr. Denaro, who was arrested at a healthcare centre in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, is alleged to be a Cosa Nostra mafia boss.
The mafia boss was given a life sentence in absentia for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
“Today, January 16, the carabinieri … arrested fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro inside a sanitary structure in Palermo, where he had gone for therapeutic treatment,” Mr. Pasquale Angelosanto, the general of the carabinieri national police, quoted.
#MatteoMessinaDenaro, finisce così la sua lunga latitanza. In manette.#Palermo #Carabinieri pic.twitter.com/WUcrqfX8eR
— Antonio Paladino 38? (@Paladino70) January 16, 2023
Denaro, also known by the alias “Diabolik,” was formerly thought to be a candidate to succeed Bernardo Provenzano as the Sicilian mafia’s boss of bosses following the deaths of Salvatore Riina in 2017 and Bernardo Provenzano in 2016.
The 60-year-old, who reportedly made the infamous statement, “I filled a cemetery, all by myself,” appeared to maintain his opulent lifestyle for some time after fleeing, due to a number of bankrollers. The voice of Mr. Denaro was first recognised in a March 1993 recording that was made public by the Italian public TV network in August 2021, during a trial in which he was invited to testify. The boss left after a few weeks and hasn’t been seen since.
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