Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested
The 60-year-old ringleader was a fugitive for 30 years and was wanted as the number one criminal. The man was taken to the ‘La Maddalena’ private clinic in Palermo for a ‘day hospital’ where, according to sources at the clinic, he was treated for the tumor for at least a year. The operation was carried out by carabinieri from Ros: Commander Pasquale Angelosanto broke the news. According to the testimony of the director of the clinic itself, Messina Denaro tried to escape, but was caught by the carabinieri.
His first words to the military, who asked him “What’s your name?”: “I’m Matteo Messina Denaro.”
Arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, reaction and latest news
Following a raid on a clinic in Palermo that began at 9 a.m., the now fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro was transferred to the San Lorenzo barracks on Via Perpignano (his destination was originally kept secret). According to investigative sources, Denaro periodically checked this facility, which was guarded by several dozen people last night during the “Ros” blitz to protect all other patients.
Originally from Castelvetrano, over time he extended his power to other mafia groups in Sicily, especially after the arrest of Toto Riina, Bernardo Provenzano and the Graviano brothers. Regarded as the keeper of a thousand secrets, Messina Denaro is due to serve a life sentence for dozens of murders, including that of little Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of a traitor who was strangled and dissolved in acid after two years in prison, for the massacre that killed Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and also for the bombings in Florence, Milan and Rome in 1993. The first murder was committed at the age of 18. “I could make a graveyard out of the people I killed,” he confessed to a friend.
Matteo Messina Denaro, all the murders and massacres: this is what he is accused of
Maps: Matteo Messina Denaro, all the murders and massacre: this is what he is accused of
A staunch supporter of the terrorist wing of the Cosa Nostra, the Corleone family, he allegedly attended the summit wanted by Riina in October 1991, where the plan to assassinate Falcone and Borsellino was decided. Renegades say that he was part of the special forces that were supposed to eliminate Falcone in Rome, and took part in the pursuit and checks organized for the attack. However, Riina’s group arrived from Palermo. And Falcone was killed a few months later in Capaci. His escape began in June 1993. In a letter to his then-fiancee Angela, he announced the start of life as a Red Primrose. “You will still hear about me,” he writes to her, hinting that he knows that soon his name will be associated with cruel bloodshed, “they will paint me as the devil, but this is all not true.”
Matteo Messina Denaro was sentenced to life imprisonment as the instigator of the massacre in Capaci and on Via D’Amelio. “This is a great victory for the state, which shows that it does not give up in the face of the mafia,” were the first words posted on Twitter by Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. “Great satisfaction for the historic result in the fight against the mafia,” Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said as soon as he learned the news.
