His is a name that sends shivers down the spines of Sicilians who have invested many years in dread that they could be added to the long record of his victims.
For 30 yrs, Matteo Messina Denaro ongoing to wield infinite ability and coordinate a long time of terror which observed more than 50 individuals killed, regardless of in no way becoming observed in public immediately after going on the operate.
The mafioso, who after boasted he could ‘fill a cemetery his victims’, purchased a collection of lethal assaults, including the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, as well as a collection of auto bombs in Florence, Milan and Rome that still left 10 individuals dead and 93 injured.
And kids ended up not off limits for the mafia boss. In 1993, Messina Denaro aided organise the kidnapping of a 12-12 months-outdated boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in an try to dissuade his father from supplying proof from the mafia, prosecutors say.
The boy was held in captivity for two yrs right before he was brutally strangled to death, and his overall body dissolved in a vat of acid.
For 30 years, Matteo Messina Denaro (pictured in the 1990s) has ongoing to wield infinite ability and coordinate many years of terror which saw above 50 people today killed, irrespective of by no means being noticed in general public soon after likely on the operate
Matteo Messina Denaro, Italy’s most required Mafia boss who had been on the operate for 30 many years, was arrested currently. Pictured: A mugshot of Messina Denaro from nowadays (left) and becoming led away by police officers (ideal)
Now, soon after three a long time on the run, Italy’s No. 1 fugitive was arrested on Monday at a private clinic in Palermo, Sicily, Italian paramilitary law enforcement said.
The 60-yr-previous was led absent from Palermo’s ‘La Maddalena’ medical center by two uniformed carabinieri law enforcement and bundled into a waiting black minivan – likely closing the doorway on a lengthy chapter of blood and violence wrought by the boss.
Nicknamed ‘Diabolik’ and ‘U Siccu’ (The Skinny One particular), Messina Denaro experienced been sentenced in absentia to a existence expression for his purpose in the 1992 murders of the two anti-mafia prosecutors Falcone and Borsellino.
The horrific murders have been a trademark for the feared felony. They stunned the nation and sparked a crackdown on Cosa Nostra, the real-existence Sicilian criminal offense syndicate depicted in the Godfather movies.
Messina Denaro was born into the mafia. Hailing from from the smaller city of Castelvetrano around Trapani in western Sicily, he was the son of influential mafia ‘capo’ (captain) Francesco Messina Denaro.
He immediately rose by the ranks of the Sicilian Mafia, and inevitably followed in his father’s footsteps to turn into the boss of Cosa Nostra.
He is reported to have 1st used a gun at the age of 14 and allegedly killed at 18.
Messina Denaro lived a playboy way of life. He was identified for driving costly vehicles and his flavor for carrying finely customized satisfies and Rolex watches.
And his lifestyle as a womaniser was just as deadly as his work in his father’s enterprise, with one of his earliest victims reported to be a hotel manager who objected to his affair with a receptionist who labored at the institution.
In 1993, he is said to have assassinated rival boss Vincenzo Milazzo. His notice then turned to Milazzo’s pregnant girlfriend, who he strangled to death.
He is also accused by prosecutors of being exclusively or jointly responsible for various other murders in the 1990s.
The manager was also convicted for the murder of 12-12 months-old Giuseppe di Matteo.
In 1993, Messina Denaro assisted organise the kidnap of a 12-calendar year-outdated boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo (pictured), in an endeavor to blackmail his father into not providing evidence in opposition to the mafia, prosecutors say
Messina Denaro was sentenced in absentia to a lifetime term for his job in 1992 in the murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Pictured: The scene of the murder of Falcone in Palermo, Sicily, in 1992
The mafia manager, who comes from the smaller city of Castelvetrano in Sicily, also faces a existence sentence for his job in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan which killed 10 individuals the following calendar year
Di Matteo was kidnapped and held captive for two several years in a bid by the mafia to end the boy’s father from testifying towards them to the point out.
After all that time in captivity, he was brutally strangled to loss of life and his human body was disposed of in a bathtub of acid.
It was in the exact same calendar year that he is accused of having a job in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan that killed 10 men and women and hurt 93.
The assaults have been carried out alongside notorious hitman Giovanni Brusca, who boasted to murdering 200 persons single-highhandedly.
The bomb assaults, carried out at some of Italy’s most historic monuments, forced Messina Denaro into hiding. He faces a everyday living sentence for his purpose.
The arrest of ‘an extremely unsafe fugitive’ was ‘an extraordinary working day for the state’, Inside Minister Matteo Piantedosi explained.
In 2015, police found out Messina Denaro was speaking with his closest collaborators by way of the pizzini procedure, in which little, folded paper notes were still left underneath a rock at a farm in Sicily.
Investigators put in many years seeking the properties and enterprises of the boss’s identified allies on the island. In spite of staying variety 1 on Italy’s most-preferred listing, the only acknowledged image of him dated back to the early 1990.
A new e-in good shape was established in 2014 with the help of an informant.
Police looked in distinct for hiding areas in grottoes, caverns or even bunkers within buildings wherever the person nicknamed ‘Diabolik’ could be hid.
Law enforcement mentioned past September that he was however equipped to issue instructions relating to the way the mafia was run in the place all around Trapani, his regional stronghold.
A composite photo shows a personal computer generated impression launched by the Italian police, correct, in their endeavours to keep track of the mobster down, and a image of Matteo Messina Denaro, remaining
Pictured: Law enforcement reconstructions of the facial area of Messina Denaro shared to the public, depicting what he could look like nowadays as an older guy, and in costume as a female
Messina Denaro, head of the infamous Cosa Nostra gang and nicknamed ‘The Devil’ pursuing a string of brutal murders, was captured when armed police swarmed a personal health-related facility in Palermo, Sicily, exactly where he was going through treatment
The arrest comes virtually 30 many years to the working day since law enforcement arrested Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, the Sicilian Mafia’s most potent boss of the 20th century.
He at some point died in jail in 2017, having in no way broken his code of silence.
‘It is an incredible celebration, of historic importance,’ Gian Carlo Caselli, who was a prosecutor in Palermo at the time of Riina’s arrest.
Authorities say that Cosa Nostra has been changed by the ‘Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, as the most strong organised crime group in Italy.
‘There is a perception that the Sicilian Mafia is not as powerful as it employed to be, primarily since the 90s, they have definitely been not able to enter the drug sector and so they are seriously next-fiddle to the Ndrangheta on that,’ explained Federico Varese, Professor of Criminology at Oxford College.
