Alleged to be a boss of Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia, Denaro had been on run for 30 years and was arrested in Palermo.
Others said he had never left his stronghold in Castelvetrano, in the province of Trapani. Over the years, dozens of people have been arrested in his place in cases of mistaken identity. In 2002, he was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life in jail for having personally killed or ordered the murder of dozens of people. The quest to locate Denaro was complicated by the near-complete absence of recent photographs. My warmest thanks and those of the entire government go to the police forces … Nicknamed Diabolik or U Siccu (the skinny one), Denaro was born in Castelvetrano, Sicily, in 1962.
Messina Denaro was reportedly detained in a private clinic in Sicily's capital, Palermo. He is alleged to be a boss of the notorious Cosa Nostra mafia. Italian ...
Gian Carlo Caselli, a judge and former prosecutor general, said that the arrest of Messina Denaro was an "exceptional... For years, Messina Denaro had been a symbol of the state's inability to reach the upper echelons of the organised crime syndicates. That's why we saw people clap in Palermo and why the state is triumphant - because the news feels like closure." "We now know Messina Denaro was being cured for cancer so is quite sick. Italian media reported that Messina Denaro was captured just before 10:00 (09:00 GMT) and taken to a secret location by the Carabinieri. The mafia boss also oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money-laundering and drug-trafficking for the powerful Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate.
Messina Denaro, the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses, was arrested in Palermo after 30 years on the run.
He was the last of three longtime fugitive top-level Mafia bosses who had for decades eluded capture. Messina Denaro, who had a power base in the port city of Trapani, in western Sicily, was considered Sicily's Cosa Nostra top boss even while a fugitive. He is set to be imprisoned for are two bombings in Sicily in 1992 that murdered top anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the bosses of the Cosa Nostra Mafia in Sicily and Italy's most wanted man, has been arrested by police while being treated in ...
A suspected sighting of him in September 2021 led to a manhunt and hundreds of tips, the prosecutor said. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni tweeted: “A great victory for the state which demonstrates that it does not give up in the face of the Mafia.” “It is a victory for all the police forces that have worked together over these long years to bring the dangerous fugitive to justice,” Italy’s Chief of Police, Lamberto Giannini, said in a statement congratulating the Carabinieri – Italy’s military police – and the Palermo Public Prosecutor’s Office.
PALERMO, Italy: Italian police on Monday (Jan 16) arrested Matteo Messina Denaro, the country's most wanted mafia boss who had been on the run since 1993, ...
He eventually died in jail in 2017, having never broken his code of silence. In 1993 he helped organise the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in an attempt to dissuade his father from giving evidence against the mafia, prosecutors say. Messina Denaro, 60, was led away from Palermo's "La Maddalena" hospital by two uniformed carabinieri police and bundled into a waiting black minivan.
Fugitive mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been arrested on Monday by Italian military police after thirty years in hiding.
Citing the clinic's director, Corriere Della Sera reported that Messina Denaro tried unsuccessfully to escape law enforcement, but investigators later said he ...
[Crime](https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/crime), however, has long run in the family. The carabinieri say they found a suspect in good condition, wearing a $38,000 [Franck Muller](https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/luxury-watches/2) watch. Whatever charges Matteo Messina Denaro faces now that he's under arrest, he has already been sentenced to life in prison. [Cosa Nostra](https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-in/growth-strategies/even-the-mafia-can-teach-us-something/292608) boss and Italy's most wanted man, has been arrested. Matteo Messina Denaro has long been considered one of the Sicilian Mafia's most influential and dangerous members. He became boss of the powerful Mafia family in Trapani, Sicily, after the arrest of his uncle, Salvatore "Toto" Riina, in 1993.
Messina Denaro is accused of being a ruthless assassin whose violence fuelled the bloody reputation of the Cosa Nostra Mafia. “With the people I have killed ...
“We have confirmation of his presence in Brasil, Spain, Britain, Austria,” she told Il Fatto Quotidiano daily at the time. He was once featured on an Italian magazine cover in dark glasses, looking like a rock star, but his list of victims is long and the crimes he is accused of are horrific. Falcone was murdered in a car bombing near Palermo on May 23, 1992. His first run-ins with the law began in 1989 when he took part in a bloody struggle between two clans. Unfortunately, the employee was Messina Denaro’s mistress. As head of the Castelvetrano clan, he was allied with the Corleonesi clan, which was immortalised in the The Godfather films.
Italian police have arrested the country's most-wanted Sicilian mafia boss, ending a 30-year hunt for a gangster convicted in absentia of the 1992 murders ...
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Italian police arrested Matteo Messina Denaro when he was identified walking from a clinic to a cafe.
In 2002 he was tried and sentenced to life in jail in absentia. "Messina Denaro committed some of the most violent and cruel crimes Italy can remember," he said. Police said that far from looking like a "destroyed man", he seemed like "a well-groomed man in a good economic condition". After he went into hiding, Cosa Nostra completely changed its attitude, becoming a more silent and almost invisible, submerged organisation," journalist Andrea Purgatori told the BBC. He made to turn back, but spotted more police closing off the street. After 30 years of searching, what had finally led the police to him? Italians have been transfixed by the arrest. On Monday morning, more than 100 members of the armed forces surrounded La Maddalena clinic. For over a decade, police cracked down on anyone suspected of protecting or aiding Messina Denaro. During his time at the top of the Cosa Nostra organised crime syndicate, Messina Denaro oversaw racketeering, illegal waste dumping, money-laundering and drug-trafficking. Investigators zoomed into their lives, narrowing down the search to 10 suspects, then five. Reported sightings placed him everywhere from Venezuela to the Netherlands.
Italian investigators discover designer clothes and expensive shoes inside 'normal' two-storey building.
At the moment of his arrest, he was wearing luxury clothes and a €38,000 (£33,700) watch. In 2002, Denaro was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life in prison for having personally killed or ordered the murders of dozens of people. He was known for wearing expensive suits, a Rolex and Ray-Ban sunglasses. A man who lived on the first floor of the building told journalists he did not know his neighbour was the infamous mafia boss. He was found by the police officers who took him to the prosecutors for questioning. Nicknamed Diabolik or U Siccu (the skinny one), Denaro was born in Castelvetrano, Sicily, in 1962.
Matteo Messina Denaro liked designer clothes. He loved video games and had a taste for luxury foods. He was also a ruthless killer who once claimed to have ...
Matteo Messina Denaro, one of Italy's most wanted men, is known for his alleged involvement in dozens of Mafia-related murders.
[cracked down](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64302105) on anyone suspected of aiding or protecting Denaro, arresting over a hundred people. Speaking outside the prosecutor’s office, Meloni said that while Italy had not yet won the “war” against the Mafia, this was a “battle that was fundamental to win.” He also allegedly kidnapped the 12-year-old son of a man who was testifying against him, holding him hostage for two years before strangling the boy then dissolving his body [ in acid](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64302105) to prevent the family from burying him. They identified a man who had booked a treatment under the name of Andrea Bonafede, the nephew of deceased Mafia boss Leonardo Bonafede. His brother, Salvatore Messina Denaro, was arrested [ in 2010 ](https://www.france24.com/en/20100312-italy-mafia-police-justice-messina-denaro-organised-crime-palermo)but refused to testify about Matteo’s whereabouts. [told reporters.](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/17/messina-denaro-a-ruthless-boss-of-the-sicilian-mafia) And in 2021, a British man was arrested at a restaurant in the Hague after anti-mafia police wrongly identified him as Denaro. In May 2011, police were surveilling him at a farmhouse near his home town of Castelvetrano, but failed to arrest him, despite the involvement of hundreds of officers. “Messina Denaro committed some of the most violent and cruel crimes Italy can remember,” Purgatori said. [health](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/17/messina-denaro-a-ruthless-boss-of-the-sicilian-mafia), along with [a mix](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64302105) of old-school policing and modern technology, were key to his capture. In 2013, his sister, Patrizia Messina Denaro, [ was arrested](https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/10/10/messina-denaro-sisters-jail-term-extended_e006c7c6-c4cf-4839-9939-1d10d88f99ff.html) and later sentenced to 14 years in prison for being a member of the Mafia. [both members](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/17/messina-denaro-a-ruthless-boss-of-the-sicilian-mafia) of the mob, as were his siblings.
The mafia boss is the last known face of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate. But his capture represents the end of an era, not the end of the mafia in Sicily.
I believe that this arrest marks a change of the guard for the leadership of Cosa Nostra. It shows still the existence of a layer of omertà – silence – that protected him. Denaro’s arrest could well produce a power vacuum that throws the Cosa Nostra into crisis – but this is not the end of the mafia. He was born into a mafia family and was known for his violence but he also moved in the “right” circles for progressing his career. Even after Denaro’s downfall, the Cosa Nostra continues to function, permeating the Italian economy and the economies of plenty of other European nations. The existence of such trusted support networks within Denaro’s mafia is a crucial issue for the authorities. Denaro was the last of the old generation mafia bosses. The Italian police has come to rely on both traditional monitoring and more modern digital and telephone intercepts when investigating mafia networks. He was able to direct the Cosa Nostra from 2007 until his arrest by infiltrating the legitimate economy through front companies. Denaro is the last boss who knows all the secrets surrounding Cosa Nostra’s terrorist attacks on the state of the early 1990s. His is the last known face of Cosa Nostra’s leadership. It seems significant that after three decades on the run, this was the date the state finally managed to catch up with him.
Capture of the last fugitive Cosa Nostra 'godfather' highlights the state's progress against organised crime, experts say.
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