Mafia Boss Matteo Messina Denaro Arrested!

Published on January 18, 2023 | Published By: Bruce Wayne | In controversy , Legal

Source: CNA

After 30 years on the run, Italian mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro was finally arrested.
He was arrested in Sicily in a private clinic where the mob boss was receiving cancer treatment.
Denaro once said he could “fill a cemetery” with his killings.

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Matteo Messina Denaro was finally arrested

Matteo Messina Denaro, the most wanted Mafia boss in Italy, was arrested in Palermo, Sicily after 30 years on the run.

According to reports, Denaro was detained while undergoing cancer treatment in Palermo. He was prosecuted and given a life sentence in prison in absentia in 2002 for many killings; he is suspected of being a boss of the infamous Cosa Nostra Mafia.

According to Italian media, the Carabinieri apprehended Messina Denaro soon before 10:00 (09:00 GMT) and took him to a hidden location. According to reports, he went to the clinic under a false identity to receive chemotherapy.

Messina Denaro being arrested (Source: Reuters)

Why was Matteo Messina Denaro wanted by the police?

Messina Denaro is believed to have orchestrated dozens of murders related to the Mafia.

Given repeated life sentences for his numerous crimes, most notably in 1992 for his involvement in the separate murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

His most recent life term was given in 2020 for the deadly bombs in Milan, Florence, and Rome in the late 1990s as well as the murder and torture of an enemy’s 11-year-old son who testified against the Sicilian Cosa Nostra.

Messina Denaro allegedly bragged that his victims could “fill a cemetery.” The formidable Cosa Nostra organized crime syndicate’s mafia boss also handled racketeering, illicit garbage disposal, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

Messina Denaro headshot (Source: CNN)

According to rumors, he was Tot Riina’s protege. Tot Riina was the boss of the Corleone family and was apprehended in 1993 after 23 years on the lam.

He is regarded as the final “secret keeper” of the Cosa Nostra. He is thought to be the source of all information and the identities of people connected to numerous of the Mafia’s most notorious crimes, including the bombings that killed magistrates Falcone and Borsellino.

Even though Messina Denaro had been on the run since 1993, it was believed that he was still giving commands to his staff members from various hidden locations.

The police have previously arrested the wrong people as Denaro

Numerous people have been detained in place of Denaro over the years due to identity confusion. The Carabinieri raided a Sicilian hospital in 2019 to seize a Castelvetrano man who was being treated in the neurology department.

In The Hague, Netherlands, in September 2021, highly armed police handcuffed a 54-year-old British man from Liverpool, pulled a hood over his head, and carried him out in front of dozens of horrified patrons.

Italy allegedly requested the execution of an international arrest warrant from the Dutch government believing the guy to be Denaro, which led to the arrest. A few days later, he was freed.

Matteo Messina Denaro’s Arrest was ‘Symbolic’

Messina Denaro’s arrest, according to University of Essex criminology expert Anna Sergi, was “symbolic not just because he was the boss of Cosa Nostra, but because he symbolizes the last fugitive the Italian state genuinely wanted to get its hands on,” according to the BBC.

She claimed that because the announcement felt like closure, people in Palermo cheered and the state felt “triumphant.” Following the arrest, praise for the military’s work flowed in from all political angles.

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