Matteo Messina Denaro, the leader of the Sicilian island-based Cosa Nostra, known as the “Father of Fathers”, was seized in a private clinic in the island’s capital, Palermo.
The special operations unit of the gendarmerie forces, ROS, announced that Messina Denaro was arrested in the clinic he went to for treatment.
The Italian press, based on sources from the clinic, wrote that Denaro had been treated here for at least a year.
It is stated that the clinic named La Maddalena, where the mafia boss was caught, specializes in cancer treatment.
Ansa news agency wrote that Messina Denaro was undergoing chemotherapy at the clinic.
The owner of the clinic, Stefania Filosto, said in a statement published in Corriere della Sera that Messina Denaro applied to the clinic under a false name (Bonafede).
“He was in line to get tested with other patients,” Filosto said. All of a sudden, armed men appeared, the mafia leader tried to escape and went through the doors to the street, where he was caught by the gendarmerie,” he said.
After the operation, the images taken around the clinic began to spread.
In one of them, it is seen that the citizens gathered around applaud as the vehicles of the security forces leave the clinic.
‘I CAN FILL A CEMETERY’
Messina Denaro, 60, has been wanted since 1993.
The mafia leader, remembered for bragging that he could “fill a graveyard” with his victims, is said to have been linked to nearly 50 murders.
The mafia leader was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing dozens or ordering murder.
These murders included the murder and acid destruction of the son of a mafia confessor, and the 1992 assassinations of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
Messina Denaro was also convicted for his role in the 1993 bombings in Roama, Florence and Milan.
Denaro was born in 1962 in the Sicilian town of Castelvetrano, the son of Francesco Messina Denaro (Don Ciccio), boss of one of the Cosa Nostra clans.
Matteo Messina Denaro succeeded him after his father, who had lived on the run for years, died in 1998.
Messina Denaro was managing Cosa Nostra’s businesses, including illegal waste disposal, money laundering, drug trafficking.
It is thought that the mafia boss, who was last seen while on vacation in the summer of 1993, continued to give orders after this date, even though he was a fugitive.
Denaro is reportedly the heir to Cosa Nostra bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina, who died in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Denaro was also wanted by the name of the comic book hero ‘Diabolik’ due to his long avoidance of capture. Due to the fact that the mafia boss has been on the run for a long time, his current image is also unknown and he was sought by photographs prepared with digital aging effect.
It was also alleged that Denaro had plastic surgery and had his fingerprints removed in order not to be recognized.
Numerous operations have been carried out in recent years to capture the “Father of the Fathers”. In 2019, in Sicily and in 2021 in the Netherlands, people believed to be Messina Denaro were released after being detained.
The news of the arrest of Messina Denaro was announced on the news channel of the public broadcaster Rai, as “Today is a good day”.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also commented on the news as “a great victory for the state, which showed that it did not give up in the face of the mafia.”