Matteo Messina Denaro

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.

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.

Convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, after three decades on the run, authorities said.

While the Sicilian Mafia was significantly weakened by a small army of turncoats, on the mainland, the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate, based in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula, steadily eclipsed Cosa Nostra in reach and influence. Messina Denaro went into hiding in the summer of that same year, as the Italian state stiffened its crackdown on the Sicilian crime syndicate following the murders of Falcone and Borsellino. That all three top bosses were ultimately arrested in the heart of Sicily while they led a clandestine life for decades won’t surprise Italy’s police and prosecutors. Once Provenzano was in police hands, the hunt focused on Messina Denaro, but despite numerous reported sightings of the boss, he managed to elude arrest until Monday. Although he had a weakness for women, Messina Denaro could be cruel, strangling a woman while she was pregnant, according to Italian media. 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. Right after he went into hiding, Messina Denaro sent a letter to his then-girlfriend. Unlike Sicily’s crime syndicates, the ‘Ndrangheta draws its rank and file based on family ties, leaving it less vulnerable to turncoats. [two bombings in Sicily in 1992](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-20-mn-4101-story.html) that killed top anti-Mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Falcone’s wife and several of their bodyguards. He was wearing a brown leather jacket trimmed in shearling and a matching white-and-brown skullcap and his trademark tinted glasses. His face looked wan, and he looked straight ahead. Pasquale Angelosanto, who heads the police force’s special operations squad.

Fugitive mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been arrested on Monday by Italian military police after thirty years in hiding.

Messina Denaro's arrest brings to a close the era of the "Cosa Nostra" Sicilian crime syndicate depicted in "The Godfather" movies.

"He is the essence of the great historical power of Cosa Nostra," she told the French news agency AFP. Messina Denaro and Riina were caught in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, while Provenzano was apprehended in a farmhouse in nearby Corleone. Messina Denaro had been sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, whose murders shocked the nation and led to stricter anti-mafia legislation.

Italy's most wanted mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, was arrested by armed police at a private hospital in Sicily on Monday, where the man who has been on ...

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. He eventually died in jail in 2017, having never broken his code of silence. Messina Denaro, 60, was led away from Palermo's "La Maddalena" hospital by two uniformed carabinieri police and bundled into a waiting black minivan. "We have not won the war, we have not defeated the mafia but this battle was a key battle to win, and it is a heavy blow to organised crime," she said. A second man who had driven Messina Denaro to the hospital was arrested at the scene on suspicion of aiding a fugitive. Nicknamed "Diabolik" and "'U Siccu" (The Skinny One), Messina Denaro had been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, crimes that shocked the nation and sparked a crackdown on Cosa Nostra.

Italian paramilitary police say they have arrested convicted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro in a private clinic in Palermo.

For his residence, he cited Castelvetrano, a farm town near Trapani, which was his crime clan's power base and where he was assured of logistics support during his time as a fugitive, according to investigators. The brother was convicted years ago of Mafia association. "It was a debt that the Republic owed to the victims of those years." On Monday, Italian state TV transmitted what it said was an audio recording of a 1993 appearance by Messina Denaro before a Sicilian court. One of his girlfriends was arrested and convicted of having hidden him for a time. When Provenzano was nabbed in his rustic hideaway, police found a stash of such notes. 15, 1993, capture of Mafia "boss of bosses" Salvatore "Toto" Riina, in a Palermo apartment, after 23 years on the run. The Italian Mafia boss who set the record for the longest time on the lam was Bernardo Provenzano. That all three top bosses were ultimately arrested in the heart of Sicily while they conducted clandestine lives for decades won't surprise Italy's police and prosecutors. He faces multiple life sentences that he is expected to serve in a maximum security prison and under the particularly restrictive conditions reserved for top organized crime bosses. Monday's arrest came 30 years and a day after the Jan. Hundreds of police officers were tasked over the years with tracking him, the last of three longtime top-level Mafia bosses who managed to elude capture for decades.

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 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.